New York, June 14
The prison worker who helped
two inmates escape from a maximum security prison in New York a week
ago has been detained by authorities on the charge of promoting prison
contraband and for the misdemeanour of criminal facilitation, EFE
reported.
The New York Police Department told reporters on
Saturday that Joyce Mitchell, 51, faces a maximum sentence of seven
years behind bars, after being detained following her confession to
state police investigators.
In her confession, Joyce said she
provided the prisoners, who are still at large, with access to a
cellphone and brought them contraband tools at the Clinton Correctional
Facility
Mitchell, who gave tailoring classes to inmates, has been suspended from her job since last weekend.
The
local press mentioned drill bits among the tools that Mitchell provided
the inmates to carry out their jailbreak, while the daily Times Union
said she also arranged to have a car ready for the prisoners after they
broke out of prison, but she apparently backed out of that plan after
suffering an "anxiety attack".
The authorities said that for now,
no charges have been filed against her husband, despite the fact that
some media have indicated his possible implication in the case.
David
Sweat and Richard Matt escaped last Saturday from the Clinton
Correctional Facility in the town of Dannemora by cutting through the
back wall of their adjacent cells to access a tunnel, a catwalk and
eventually the village sewer system, until they reached a manhole
outside the prison, broke open the cover and climbed out.
Meanwhile,
in the midst of heavy rainfall, the search and capture operation for
the two fugitives continues with the participation of some 500 local,
state and federal security forces aided by tracking dogs and
helicopters.
The search for the two fugitives focused this Friday on a wooded area several kilometres from the prison.
Authorities
in the neighbouring state of Vermont have also activated security
protocols out of concern that the criminals might have crossed the state
line.
"We're coming for you" was the message sent by the New
York State Police Commander, Major Charles E. Guess, during a press
conference held in the town of Seranac in Upstate New York.
Sweat,
serving a life sentence for the murder of a sheriff in 2002, and Matt,
sentenced to 25 years for killing a businessman in 2007, were found
missing when a prisoner check was conducted at the correctional facility
near the Canadian border.
Known as "Little Siberia" among
inhabitants of the area, the Clinton Correctional Facility is a maximum
security prison that holds 3,000 inmates and has a staff of 1,400
employees.
