Major Prison Security Lapses Blamed For Escape Of David Sweat, Richard Matt
ALBANY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Major prison security lapses are to blame for the escape of two convicted murderers from an upstate prison last year, an investigation has found.
Chronic staff complacency, complicit employees were also blamed for the infamous escape of David Sweat and Richard Matt.
State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott's report released Monday about the breakout of David Sweat and Richard Matt says security lapses at the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility at Dannemora were longstanding.
The problems included:
• Failure to search bags brought into the prison by employees, which enabled prison employee Joyce Mitchell to smuggle several items including an atlas, hacksaw blades and chisels into the prison.
• Improper prisoner counts at night that allowed David Sweat to make ``near-nightly'' trips from his cell as he worked on the escape route, and then allowed Richard Matt and Sweat to escape. State corrections policy mandates four ``master'' prisoner counts each day, along with hourly counts throughout the day and night. But Clinton guards performed only two ``master'' counts per day, and inmates told investigators guards often skipped counts entirely at night. Authorities also discovered guards often recorded prisoner counts before they were even conducted.
• Poor cell searches. Investigators found guards fell far short of requirements regarding cell searches, and that in the 12 months before the escape, 32 cells in the unit housing Matt and Sweat were not searched at all -- including Sweats'. Guards said they did search Matt's cell, in March 2015, but failed to discover the hole he had cut in the wall. Sweat later questioned whether guards actually searched Matt's cell. The report also faults prison officers for failing to adequately inspect tunnels beneath the prison.
• Problems at the prison tailor shop that allowed Mitchell to engage in inappropriate conduct with Matt and Sweat. Mitchell's supervisors first noticed her acting inappropriately with inmates but failed to take action. Inmates were allowed to join Mitchell in a private room within the shop without the presence of the guard.
• A lapse in oversight by the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and prison management that allowed problems at the prison to continue.
"The extent of complacency and failure to adhere to the most basic security standards uncovered by my investigation was egregious and inexcusable," Scott told WCBS 880's Peter Haskell.
In addition to more rigorous inspections, Scott called for the expanded use of cameras and the inspections of workers' bags.
Sweat and Matt eluded more than 1,000 searchers who combed the thick woods and bogs of northern New York for much of the next three weeks. Matt was shot and killed by searchers about 30 miles west of the prison on June 26. Sweat was wounded and captured by a state trooper two days later near the Canadian border.
Sweat, who was already serving life behind bars when he escaped, has been ordered to pay restitution and was sentenced to additional prison time.
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