No early release for prison tailor who helped killers escape

ALBANY, N.Y. – The prison tailor who helped two killers escape from an upstate New York prison has been denied parole for a third time.

A parole board decision released Thursday says Joyce Mitchell will remain behind bars for at least two more years.

She’s serving 2 1/3 to 7 years for helping Richard Matt and David Sweat escape Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora in June 2015. She provided tools the killers used in a prison break featured in a November 2018 Showtime miniseries.

State corrections spokesman Thomas Mailey says the parole board considers victims’ statements, institutional accomplishments, perceived danger to public safety and other factors in determining parole eligibility. Specific reasons for the board’s decision were not released.

Mitchell’s next parole hearing at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility is in June 2021.