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Where Is Dannemora's Joyce Mitchell Nearly a Decade After Infamous Prison Break?
The married prison worker smuggled tools in frozen hamburger meat to help convicted murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat brazenly escape the upstate New York facility.
The 2015 escape of two convicted murderers from a maximum-security prison in upstate New York remains one of the most brazen prison breaks in the nation's history.
On June 6, 2015, inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat, then 49 and 35, tunneled their way out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in the sleepy town of Dannemora, about 45 miles northwest of Burlington, Vermont, and 40 miles south of the Canadian border. The pair were eventually separated as a massive $23 million manhunt ensued, and by the end of the month, one was dead and the other recaptured in dramatic fashion.
Prison worker and tailor shop supervisor of seven years Joyce Mitchell, now 60, would later plead guilty to helping the dangerous men escape, as covered in the two-hour special, Dannemora Prison Break, now available to watch on Oxygen.
Learn more about Joyce Mitchell's part in the riveting event and discover what she’s up to now.
Where is Joyce Mitchell now?
In September 2015, Mitchell pleaded guilty and was sentenced to up to seven years for first-degree promoting prison contraband, plus another year (to be served concurrently) for fourth-degree criminal facilitation, according to CNN. She was also fined $6,375 and later ordered to pay nearly $80,000 in restitution, according to NBC News.
Today, however, Joyce Mitchell is free.
Mitchell was paroled from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility — New York’s only maximum-security prison for women — in February 2020 after serving nearly four and a half years behind bars, according to the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision website.
At the time of her release, locals in the region — known as New York’s North Country — staunchly opposed Mitchell's freedom, as reported by NBC Burlington affiliate WPTZ.
She was previously denied parole on three occasions: twice in 2017 and once in 2019, as reported by Binghamton’s Press & Sun-Bulletin.
What did Joyce Mitchell do?
Mitchell admitted to smuggling a drill bit and hacksaw blades concealed in frozen hamburger meat so that Matt and Sweat could break out through the prison walls, according to NBC News. The men crawled through an 18- to 24-inch wide underground steam pipe until reaching a manhole just 400 feet beyond the prison’s walls, as previously reported by Oxygen.com, an escape drawing widespread comparisons to the one featured in the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption.
“After a couple of days, [Matt] told me he and [Sweat] had cut the holes and were going down in the pipes,” Mitchell told police, CNN reported. “I was already bringing stuff in to him, and didn’t really feel I could stop.”
Mitchell and the men hatched a plan that would have had her pick them up outside the prison walls and provide them with clothes, firearms, and camping equipment to aid their escape. However, on the night of the breakout, the married woman said she “panicked” and backed out, leaving the felons to continue without her help.
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About Joyce Mitchell’s Relationship with David Sweat
At the time, David Sweat was serving a life sentence for the July 4, 2002 murder of Broome County Sheriff’s Deputy Kevin Tarsia, 36.
Sweat, already a convicted burglar with a track record dating back to his teen years, was 22 when he and a few accomplices took part in stealing guns from a Pennsylvania fireworks store near the New York state border in the early morning hours.
Tarsia stumbled upon Sweat and his co-conspirators in a Broome County, New York park, per the Press & Sun Bulletin. Sweat and another man fired more than a dozen shots at the deputy. Tarsia initially survived, but then Sweat got into his Honda, ran him over and dragged his body. Tarsia still clung to life until Sweat’s accomplice shot the victim twice in the face.
Before the June 2015 escape in Dannemora, prison officials investigated allegations that Joyce Mitchell and Sweat engaged in sexual activity, though the claims were never substantiated. However, it was enough for Sweat to be removed from Mitchell’s tailor shop, and inmate Richard Matt would become Sweat and Mitchell’s middleman, often passing sexually explicit photos and notes and, eventually, forming plans to escape.
“I would bring cookies, brownies, you know, stuff like that," Mitchell admitted in a 2015 interview with TODAY. “I did it a lot.”
Mitchell denied ever having a sexual relationship with Sweat, but did confess to passing along "naked photos," according to CBS News.
About Joyce Mitchell’s Relationship with Richard Matt
Richard Matt was serving 25 to life for the 2017 murder of his former employer, 76-year-old food wholesaler William Rickerson, according to Rochester’s Democrat and Chronicle. Matt and a second man kidnapped Rickerson from his home in North Tonawanda, New York, Matt’s hometown just north of Buffalo, acting on the belief that Rickerson could lead the men to a hidden stash of money.
Matt and his accomplice drove for more than 24 hours with Rickerson in the trunk, stopping frequently to torture the man. Matt eventually broke Rickerson’s neck, dismembered his body with a saw, and threw the remains into the Niagara River.
Former North Tonawanda Police Chief Gabriel DiBernardo would call Matt “the most vicious, evil person” he’d ever come across during his 38 years on the force, according to the New York Times.
Matt fled the state and went to Mexico, where he killed another man by stabbing him to death at a bar, per the Democrat and Chronicle. There, he was jailed for the second murder until he was extradited to the United States in 2007, at which point he was convicted of Rickerson’s death. He was sentenced to 25 years and imprisoned at the Clinton Correctional Facility, where he would cross paths with seamstress Joyce Mitchell.
Mitchell admitted to having a “flirtation thing” with Matt and claimed he once forced her to perform oral sex.
“Their attention made me feel good,” Mitchell said of Sweat and Matt, per her interview with TODAY. “Everybody tells me I’m way too nice.”
Where are Richard Matt and David Sweat now?
Matt died on June 26, 2015, after a standoff with authorities resulted in him being shot to death in Malone, New York, about 35 miles west of the prison.
Two days after Matt’s death, State Trooper Sgt. Jay Cook found Sweat walking on a road near the Canadian border, ultimately giving chase into an open field and shooting the fugitive as he attempted to run away.
Sweat was subsequently captured, and Trooper Cook was hailed by then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as “a hero,” as reported by NBC News.
Sweat survived his injuries and is currently serving life in prison at the Midstate Correctional Facility in Marcy, New York, according to state records reviewed by Oxygen.com.
Learn more by watching Dannemora Prison Break, available to watch now on Oxygen.
