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Prison Worker Helped Inmates Escape Because Of The Fantasy And The Sex
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 29, 2015
Modified Jul 29, 2015
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 29, 2015
Modified Jul 29, 2015
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After accepting a plea deal that could put her in prison for up to seven years, more details of upstate prison worker Joyce Mitchell's statements to authorities were released. The 51-year-old married mother reportedly confessed, "I believe I helped Inmate [Richard] Matt and Inmate [David] Sweat escape because I was caught up in the fantasy. I enjoyed the attention, the feeling both of them gave me and the thought of a different life." And naturally there was also sex.
Mitchell admitted to sneaking tools, gloves, glasses with lights on them, etc. to Matt and Sweat, which enabled the pair (well, Sweat really) to cut a hole out of his prison cell as well as Matt's, and eventually cut through pipes to escape the Clinton Correctional Facility on June 6th. Matt, convicted of killing a former boss, and Sweat, convicted of killing a NY state sheriff's deputy, were on the lam for weeks, until Matt was fatally shot during an attempted carjacking and Sweat was captured.
She said, "Inmate Matt and I got along well. We talked every day and he treated me with respect and was nice to me. He made me feel special." From NBC News:
In April, she and Matt were alone in the tailor shop where she was an instructor when he grabbed her and her kissed her, she said. "It startled me. He kissed me with an open mouth kiss. I didn't say anything because I was scared for my husband, who also works for the facility."
In May, she said, Matt asked her to perform oral sex and she did, out of fear, she said. On other occasions, Matt would come to her desk wearing a big coat in which he had cut a hole so that Mitchell could touch his genitals.
"This happened two or three times," she said. "The only other physical contact I had with Inmate Matt was when he kissed me at the bottom of the first set of stairs. He never touched any of my private areas."
She also admitted to giving notes and selfies to Matt: "Some of those notes were of a sexual nature but I never had any sexual contact with Inmate Sweat, only Inmate Matt. I did take some naked photos of my breasts and vagina and gave them to Inmate Matt to give to Inmate Sweat. I do not know what they did with the photos."
The NY Times notes, "But while she said she liked Mr. Sweat, her primary affections were undoubtedly for Mr. Matt. 'Each time he would ask me for a tool, I would go to the store and get them,' she said on June 8, two days after the escape." A detective who investigated Matt told the NY Post, "He has a way with the ladies. When [Matt’s] cleaned up, he’s very handsome and, in all frankness, very well endowed. He gets girlfriends anyplace he goes."
Mitchell was going to be the inmates' getaway driver, but she backed out at the last minute. They had given her drugs to slip her husband Lyle, who also worked at the prison. "The agreed upon meeting time was midnight. I was to drive my Jeep and bring my cellphone, gps, clothes, a gun, tents, sleeping bags, hatchet, fishing poles and money from a package I never picked up," she told investigators. "After I picked them up, the plan was to drive to my home and Inmate Matt was going to kill 'the glitch.' Inmate Matt referred to Lyle as 'the glitch.'... I know I had agreed to help them escape and run away with them, but I panicked and couldn't follow through with the rest of the plan. I really do love my husband and he's the reason."
Tagged
clinton correctional facility
david sweat
joyce mitchell
prison break
richard matt
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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