![]() One man described being awakened in the middle of the night, choked, thrown to the ground, beaten, strip searched, and tightly shackled. The abuse was covered up through false disciplinary tickets and worsened by the denial and delay of medical treatment, according to a 2016 report by the nonprofit Correctional Association of New York. By August, Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York had received 71 complaints of abuse from Clinton. Some men said officers forbade them from telling medical staff how they got their injuries. A third, Reggie Edwards, said he was put in solitary for three weeks, and his belongings and wedding ring were thrown away. Anyone engaged in misconduct will be disciplined within the facility and if warranted the incident will be referred for outside prosecution.”Īnother man on the honor block, Victor Aponte, told the Times that an officer tied a plastic bag around his neck and tightened it until he passed out. In March 2017, Alexander filed a lawsuit against the Superintendent of Clinton and a list of other Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) officials and correctional officers.Ī DOCCS spokesperson said the department could not comment on ongoing or pending litigation, but added, “DOCCS has zero tolerance for violence within the facilities. Multiple times that day, correctional officers put a plastic bag over his head and threatened to waterboard him. According to Alexander’s account, an officer grabbed the handcuffed man by the throat, lifted him out of his chair, and slammed his head into a pipe while other officers threw punches. Within hours of discovering Matt and Sweat’s absence on June 6, 2015, according to the Times, correctional officers took Patrick Alexander, who lived in the cell next to Matt, into a broom closet, punched him, and slammed him against the wall while insisting he must know something about the escape. Once the escape took place, prison staff quickly tried to pass on the blame. Viewers see Mitchell nervously-but easily-smuggle hacksaw blades into the prison, hidden in frozen ground beef. As the miniseries depicts, their escape was enabled by employees’ disregard for rules, lack of oversight, and lax security. ![]() “Escape at Dannemora” is based closely on Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott’s 2016 report outlining the extensive state failures that made Sweat and Matt’s escape possible. When asked why they chose to omit this chapter of the story, representatives from the show said no one was available to comment on the decision. ![]() Instead, the final episode depicts the 23-day manhunt through the wilderness that leaves Matt dead and Sweat wounded and recaptured, the inspector general conducting interviews, and even Governor Andrew Cuomo touring the facility. “Escape at Dannemora” never shows or references the torture going on inside the prison walls. Yet according to the Times, during an extended lockdown following the breakout, men in Clinton were repeatedly “beaten while handcuffed, choked and slammed against cell bars and walls.” This abuse served no useful purpose: The New York inspector general’s 150-page report on the escape did not implicate a single other incarcerated person, and instead blamed extreme negligence by prison staff and higher-ups in the Corrections Department, as well as direct assistance from Mitchell. In August 2015, two months after the escape, a New York Times investigation outlined horrific abuse at Clinton, where men who had lived near Sweat and Matt on the “honor block” (a cellblock for those who have earned additional privileges) were tortured for information. ![]() But it ignores one of the most serious consequences of the break: the widespread retaliation carried out against the people left behind in Clinton and other New York prisons. The series, which has earned praise for its evenhandedness and authenticity, takes viewers through a dramatic retelling of the two men’s elaborate plot, the escape, and the ensuing manhunt. The tale focuses on two men serving life sentences, David Sweat and Richard Matt, and their relationship with prison employee Tillie Mitchell, who aids their escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York. The true story of a 2015 prison break from a New York maximum-security facility has electrified viewers of Showtime’s acclaimed miniseries “Escape at Dannemora,” which wrapped up on Dec. This story was co-published with Solitary Watch.
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