Resumen
Resumen
The Prison Break, the Manhunt, the Inside Story
In June 2015, two vicious convicted murderers broke out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, in New York's North Country, launching the most extensive manhunt in state history. Aided by prison employee Joyce Mitchell, double murderer Richard Matt and cop-killer David Sweat slipped out of their cells, followed a network of tunnels and pipes under the thirty-foot prison wall, and climbed out of a manhole to freedom.
For three weeks, the residents of local communities were virtual prisoners in their own homes as law enforcement from across the nation swept the rural wilderness near the Canadian border. The manhunt made front-page headlines--as did the prison sex scandal involving both inmates and Joyce Mitchell--and culminated in a dramatic and bloody standoff.
Now Charles A. Gardner--a lifelong resident of the community and a former correction officer who began his training at Clinton and ultimately oversaw the training of staff in twelve prisons, including Clinton--tells the whole story from an insider's point of view.
From the lax ethics and sexual hunger that drove Joyce Mitchell to fraternize with Matt and Sweat, smuggle them tools, and offer to be their getaway driver, to the state budget cuts that paved the way for prison corruption, to the brave and tireless efforts to bring the escaped killers to justice, Dannemora is a gripping account of the circumstances that led to the bold breakout and the twenty-three-day search that culminated in one man dead, and one man back in custody--and lingering questions about those who set the deadly drama in motion.
Reseñas (2)
Reseña de Publisher's Weekly
Municipal court judge Gardner makes his debut with a gripping account of the daring prison break that was recently the subject of a Showtime miniseries, though the absence of sourcing will be a concern to some readers. In June 2015, convicted murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat escaped their cells at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., through holes they cut in steel walls and the catwalk behind them that led to an underground pipe and the outside world. From there, they were to be driven to safety by Joyce Mitchell, an unhappily married Corrections Department employee responsible for overseeing inmates working in the prison's tailor shop. Mitchell cultivated relationships with both convicts, and began smuggling contraband to them. But on the night of the breakout, Mitchell was admitted to a hospital for a panic attack, leaving Matt and Sweat to fend for themselves. Eventually, Matt was fatally shot by a border patrol officer in self-defense, and Sweat was apprehended. Gardner's own background as a former corrections officer in the New York State prison system enables him to focus on root causes that made the escape possible, such as politicians' cost-cutting decisions that dramatically reduced the amount of staff overseeing the dangerous inmates. True crime fans will be more than satisfied. Agent: Kevin O'Connor, O'Connor Literary. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Reseña de Booklist
This latest true-crime account of the 2015 Dannemora prison break is told by a former New York State Department of Corrections officer. The first half of the book outlines the protagonists' backgrounds: career criminals Richard Matt and David Sweat, corrupt guard Gene Palmer, and tailor-shop contract employee Joyce Mitchell. Gardner lionizes rank-and-file officers, who he felt were overburdened with excess duties which opened the door to Matt and Sweat's escape then charged with tirelessly combing the countryside for the escapees. Also examined is the tailor shop where Matt and Sweat fraternized with Mitchell, a major money-maker for the Department of Corrections where daily supervision of inmates was farmed out to private contractors rather than trained officers. This dramatic story will be of keen interest to those following the Showtime series Escape at Dannemora, and book clubs might pair this with New York Daily News reporter Chelsia Marcius' Wild Escape (2018) for the first-person interviews with sole-survivor Sweat. A true community insider's perspective on a legendary manhunt.--Erin Downey Howerton Copyright 2019 Booklist