The former prison tailor who helped two killers escape a maximum-security New York prison has been released after serving her sentence.
Joyce Mitchell, 55, was conditionally released from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility on Thursday. She'd been incarcerated for helping Richard Matt and David Sweat break out of the state prison in Dannemora in 2015. She provided tools they used to chisel through walls and pipes in a “Shawshank Redemption”-style escape.
After a three-week manhunt, Matt was shot dead and Sweat was captured and put behind bars for life. The escape was featured in a 2018 Showtime miniseries, “Escape at Dannemora,” with Patricia Arquette playing the part of Mitchell.
Mitchell was sentenced to 2 1/3 to seven years and was denied parole three times. She was approved for conditional release on Feb. 8 after a prison staff committee determined she had earned time off for good behavior.
A DOCCS statement indicates Mitchell was "conditionally released" to community supervision from Bedford Hills, and "the supervision will be completed on June 8, 2022."