PLATTSBURGH, Ny. — A New York State Inspector General’s Office report on the escape from a northern New York prison, released on its one-year anniversary, blasts the Clinton Correctional Facility for “grossly inadequate” night counts and numerous other security lapses.

The report reveals that convicted murderer David Sweat spent a stunning 85 nights out of his cell working on his escape in tunnels below the prison. In connection to the escape, the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision suspended a dozen Clinton Correctional employees, including the now retired Superintendent Steve Racette and prison tailor shop supervisor Joyce Mitchell, who was directly part of the escape plan. 

The 150-page document discusses how, in days before the escape, staff did not discover the holes cut in cell walls of Sweat and fellow inmate Richard Matt, who escaped the morning of June 6, 2015 igniting a weeks-long, all out manhunt, and how several bed checks the night before the escape should also have alerted staff that the two were not in their cells.

Matt and Sweat, both convicted murderers, first clambered through holes they had cut in the backs of their cells, then climbed down the catwalk behind them and found their way to freedom through tunnels in the bowels of the prison.

They exited through a manhole in the Village of Dannemora, and when Mitchell failed to pick them up as she had agreed to do, they set off on foot. 

Mitchell, 51, was sentenced to up to seven years in prison for providing tools the pair used in their escape, include hacksaw blades smuggled into the prison inside frozen hamburger meat. The prison guard who unknowingly delivered those hacksaw blades to the prison at Mitchell’s request, 57-year-old Gene Palmer, was sentenced to six months in jail earlier this year. Prosecutors said he received paintings from Matt in exchange for favors, including providing a pair of needle-nose pliers and a flat-head screwdriver to adjust an electrical outlet behind Matt’s cell.

A break in the search

Sweat and Matt evaded a contingent that grew to more than 1,000 law-enforcement officers for weeks. The focus of the search suddenly diverted about 300 miles to the south when a possible sighting was reported in Alleghany County near the Pennsylvania border.

On Saturday, June 20, John Stockwell, 48, decided to take a drive to his hunting camp in Mountain View in Franklin County, mainly to check the trail cameras he has set up in the woods to capture deer and other wildlife. He brought his black lab mix, Dolly along for company. 

Even though Stockwell was thinking Matt and Sweat might be long gone, he took his .38-caliber handgun and his wife’s cell phone.

“There were still two murderers on the loose, and I wasn’t sure, so I took it with me,” Stockwell told The Press Republican in interview for the one-year anniversary of the escape.

As Stockwell neared the small brown camp, Dolly suddenly stood at attention on a rock about five feet from the front door.

“I knew something wasn’t right when I saw her,” Stockwell said. “Her hair was up on her back, and she started going back and forth and made this low kind of growling sound.”

Just then, Stockwell saw a figure jump back in front of the window of the camp door. He drew his gun and yelled for them to come out.

Dolly was darting back and forth as Stockwell continued to yell at the two, who, by then, were hiding behind the back wall of the woodshed next to the camp. During this showdown, Stockwell was only about 20 feet from the perpetrators.

“A lot of people are afraid of a gun, but I think even more people are afraid of a dog,” he said. “She is the real hero.”

Finally, he heard some loud footsteps and what sounded like someone jumping off the back deck and running through the woods.

Startled, but relieved, Stockwell yelled to Dolly and jumped back on his ATV. He didn’t want to take any chances by going inside the camp, the left and got the police. 

“The State Police sergeant that was with me, I could tell that he knew it was something serious when we got to camp. When we came in, the table was covered with stuff,” he said. “They (the fugitives) had gone through everything and had all kinds of stuff on the table. Normally everything is put away and neat.” 

One of the items on the table was a jar of peanut-butter pretzels. That and a few other items were eventually taken to the State Police Forensics Laboratory in Albany, where Matt and Sweat’s DNA was positively identified, providing the evidence that confirmed the killers had been there. 

He has thought about his encounter often since that day and is glad it turned out the way it did.

“If Dolly wasn’t with me that day, I could have walked right into camp where they were,” he said. “She gets whatever she wants from now on.” 

The manhunt ends

Six days after Stockwell’s encounter, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Christopher Voss shot and killed Matt, who had turned 49 the day before.

State Police Troop B Bureau of Criminal Investigation Capt. Robert LaFountain said Voss “is just a phenomenal individual who has a stellar military record. Reviewing his actions after he had subdued Matt, who was armed with a shotgun, he and his team immediately focused on the possibility that Sweat was nearby. They did an outstanding job at that time.”

Virtually every State Police investigator worked on the case in one fashion or another, he added.

“I think everybody who worked on this — what I think is the largest manhunt ever that I’m aware of — has a sense of pride,” LaFountain said. “I know I have a sense of pride. It was a privilege to be a small part of it. But, like everyone else, we wish it never happened.” 

The Clinton Correctional Facility is now working to implement changes to their operations to prevent future escapes. 

Recommendations in the report from the Inspector General included better screening of employees, diligent night counts, more frequent inspections of cells and other parts of the buildings and keeping stringent policies about staff and inmate interactions. 

Lotemplio, Chapman and Clermont report for The Press Republican in Plattsburgh, New York.