Prison Worker Charged With Aiding Escapees Appears in Court

Prison Worker Charged With Aiding Escapees Appears in Court
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DANNEMORA, N.Y.—A woman charged with helping two convicted murderers escape from a maximum-security prison in far northern New York by providing them with tools made another court appearance Monday as the manhunt for them hit its 10th day.

Prosecutors say Joyce Mitchell, a prison tailoring shop instructor who had befriended the inmates, had agreed to be the getaway driver but backed out because she still loved her husband and felt guilty for participating.

She is charged with helping Richard Matt and David Sweat escape from the Clinton Correctional Facility near the Canadian border on June 6.

Mitchell made her second court appearance in Plattsburgh on Monday wearing a striped prison jumpsuit and a bulletproof vest, and she waived a preliminary hearing. The case against her is now headed to a county court.

“Basically, when it was go-time and it was the actual day of the event, I do think she got cold feet and realized, ‘What am I doing?’” Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said Sunday. “Reality struck. She realized that, really, the grass wasn’t greener on the other side.”