Is Joyce Mitchell guilty?
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: A female prison work supervisor has been accused of giving two inmates who escaped from a maximum security prison in upstate New York the power tools that they used to break out, according to multiple news outlets.
Joyce Mitchell is the culprit who aided convicted murderers David Sweat and Richard Matt in their daring escape Friday night from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y. — giving the pair tools to break through steel walls and crawl through a steam pipe, according to Fox.
She has not been arrested or charged in connection with their escape, nor has anyone else. The source added that Mitchell is cooperating with police, having provided information as needed, according to a source cited by CNN.
Authorities believe Mitchell planned to pick the two convicted murders after their brazen prison break, but lost her nerve, suffered a panic attack, and checked herself into a hospital instead.
Mitchell’s son Tobey Mitchell told NBC News his mother was in a hospital Saturday evening because “she was having severe chest pains and she was concerned about that.” He added that his mother, who works at the prison with her husband, “worries a lot about everything” but strongly challenged suggestions she had done anything wrong.
“She is not the kind of person that’s going to risk her life or other people’s lives to let these guys escape from prison,” he said.
New York State Police Superintendent Joseph A. D’Amico said Wednesday that authorities are looking “behind every tree, under every rock and inside every structure” in their manhunt for Sweat, 34, and Matt, 48.