New York, June 14 (IANS): 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.