Five ways inmates pulled off NY prison escape

ALBANY – The 150-page report released Monday on the extraordinary prison break a year ago in northern New York showed patience and plotting by the two escapees.

But the state Inspector General's report also showed they were aided by two jail workers and plenty of lapses by the prison system when they escaped on June 5, 2015, leading to a three-week manhunt that ended with one of the prisoners being killed and another captured near the Canadian border.

Here’s five ways they were able to escape from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, known as "Little Siberia."

Joyce Mitchell

Richard Matt and David Sweat, both convicted murderers, started their scheme in January 2015, and they quickly found their mark: Joyce Mitchell, the supervisor in the tailor shop where they both worked, the report contends.

Mitchell was already known by colleagues as easy on the inmates, and Matt and Sweat soon realized they could get their way with the 53-year-old married woman.

"The deceit and ingenuity of Sweat and Matt notwithstanding, the escape was possible only with the brazen assistance of Mitchell," the report said.

Supervisors feared putting her in the tailor shop, but were left with no choice because of staffing shortages, they said.

She baked Matt and Sweat cookies and brought them food. Soon she was having a sexual relationship with Matt in the tailor shop, and Matt then orchestrated having Sweat write her love letters -- even after Sweat was removed from the tailor shop.

It led to Mitchell sneaking in supplies, lighted eyeglasses and hacksaw blades. Matt drew a painting of Mitchell’s pet dogs in exchange for workout gloves.

Mitchell planned to be their getaway driver, and they would kill her husband. But she backed out at the last minute, leaving the duo to run into the woods when they escaped.

Mitchell coped to her role and was sentenced last September to up to seven years in prison.

“If I could take it all back, I would,” Mitchell said in court.

Gene Palmer

The other prison worker charged in the escape was Gene Palmer, a corrections officer at Dannemora for 27 years.

A self-described “go-to guy” for prisoners, Palmer took an affinity to the artwork made by Matt and Sweat, the report said.

So they would make him paintings of his family and scenes -- at least 10 in all and three drawings.

In exchange, Palmer would help them out: First by giving them art supplies, then escorting Matt to his cell to bypass metal detectors.

He gave them access to catwalks behind their cells; told Matt of potential cell searches; put Matt and Sweat in neighboring cells; and ultimately slipped them tools in frozen meat that Mitchell brought into the prison, the report said.

When the killers broke out, Palmer tried to destroy the artwork: "Palmer burned a number of Matt’s paintings that were in his possession and hid several of the paintings Sweat had given him in the woods near his residence," the report said.

Palmer pleaded guilty to aiding them and in February was sentenced to six months in jail.

Plotting their escape

Sweat and Matt started to discuss their escape plans in January 2015, the report said. After Sweat was removed from the tailor shop, he told investigators he had enough.

Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for killing Broome County Sheriff Deputy Kevin Tarsia on July 4, 2002.

“I just want to get out of this place. I just want to be free. I want to go live somewhere away from everybody," he said.

They talked about how Matt could get Mitchell to help them: "She’ll bring us whatever we want, just tell me what you need and I’ll get her to bring it in," Sweat said Matt told him.

Sweat told investigators he initially contemplated a "more audacious" escape: Breaking out of the jail through his cell door, then trying to climb over the prison’s 30-foot-high main wall.

But he quickly concluded that wouldn't work: Matt “can’t climb walls ... he was out of shape.”

So Sweat then focused on breaking out through prison walls and pipes.

Cutting through walls

With the hacksaw blades from Mitchell, Sweat and Matt started to cut into the 3/16-inch-thick steel rear wall of their cells.

They cut around 10-inch-by-10-inch air vents behind their beds. They did the work from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. when other inmates were eating or doing recreational activities. Sweat said the guards never asked questions.

Indeed, for three months, Sweat said he was out of his cell “every single night,” except when in a few cases when he didn't know the guards on duty.

He would mask the hole in his cell wall by re-inserting the cutout section of steel and then taping and painting over it.

The work was exhausting: Sweat lost 30 pounds and was "probably about the best physical shape I been in," he told investigators.

Even the heavier Matt lost weight so he could fit through the holes in the walls and the pipes. Sweat carried a tape measure in the tunnels to “make sure fatso could fit,” he said of Matt.

But Sweat made sure to be back in his cell by 4 a.m., the report said: enough time to change clothes, wash up, reseal the hole in his cell wall and catch a little sleep.

In early April, Sweat found an eight-pound sledge hammer that had been left by workers -- a violation of prison policy.

He got another break: In early May, the prison's steam heating was shut off, allowing them to sneak out through the steam pipes.

Escape night

Sweat did most of the work: Matt joined him in the tunnels on only two nights prior to the escape.

They talked often about The Shawshank Redemption, the 1994 classic film in which an inmate escaped through prison pipes.

“We were laughing and joking about how Andy did it in 20 years; I think we might be able to do it in 10," Sweat said they joked about breaking through a prison wall.

On the night of the escape, they packed a guitar case and backpack with supplies, clothes and maps.

The escape started at around 11 p.m. and they reached the manhole to freedom at 11:50 p.m. and waited 10 minutes to escape.

Sweat said, “We just hung out for 10 minutes [to] catch our breath,” the report said.

When they climbed out onto roadway a block south of the prison wall, Sweat testified, “Shawshank ain’t got s--- on me.”

Matt was shot and killed June 26 by a federal officer. He was drunk and carrying a shotgun, the police investigation found.

Sweat was captured two days later.

Sweat on Feb. 3 was sentenced 3 1/2 to 7 years on top of his lifetime prison sentence for the breakout.