There were clear security lapses that led to the Dannemore prison break exactly a decade ago. The inmates could carry tools around the prison. Joyce Mitchell, the tailor shop supervisor who helped the two convicts escape. could bring things into the prison easily. Once Richard Matt was killed and David Sweat captured, the state took a long, hard look at what went wrong. We talked to the inheritor of that report. on today's story of the day.
Support for Story of the Day comes from Long Run Wealth, an SEC-registered investment advisor in Lake Placid, providing comprehensive wealth management, retirement, and financial planning solutions. LongRunWealth.com and the Devlin Inn and Suites, Lake Placid. The DevlinNY.com. Hey, I'm David Summerstein. It's Wednesday, June 11th. First up, Clinton County's first confirmed tornado in more than 20 years touched down briefly in Beekman Town yesterday.
The National Weather Service says the EF-0 storm lasted about two minutes and had estimated winds of 65 to 75 miles an hour. They downed trees, peeled off parts of a roof, and flipped a trampoline. My NBC5 reports the last confirmed tornado in the county took place in Moores in July 2004. New York State saw a record-breaking 32 tornadoes last year. That included three that ripped through the southern Adirondacks last July.
Democrats in the state Senate and Assembly are backing 10 bills that would increase oversight in New York prisons. The legislation follows the beating deaths of Robert Brooks and Messiah Nantui at the hands of corrections officers earlier this year. year. Jung Yoon Han from the New York Public News Network has this report.
With just days to go before the state's legislative session ends, the omnibus bill is the first set of prison reform measures that are close to a vote. The bills would, among other things, expand state-run groups that oversee prisons. Another bill would require the state to release video footage if an incarcerated person dies and a prison guard is involved.
A separate measure would require the state to conduct a study on deaths in prisons and provide recommendations. Melanie Dominguez is the organizing director for the Katal Center for Health, Equity and Justice. There is still much more that needs to be done. by the legislature on a number of issues including parole reform and we implored the legislature to pass those bills as well.
Some state Republicans say the measures on increasing oversight are a good step, but the package doesn't address safety concerns that corrections officers have raised for months. In Albany, I'm Jung Yoon Han for the New York Public News Network. has opened a cannabis dispensary. According to the Watertown Daily Times, Addie Jenny of Jefferson County opened High Falls Garden on May 29th. It's located in the village of Therese.
Different from retail dispensaries, this small business can grow and control all aspects of processing its own products. Jenny said she'll be selling her own brand of cannabis, some of which she grows herself and some sourced from other growers. The store has items such as pre-rolls, gummies, and chocolates, as well as products for pets. Jenny represented parts of Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties in Albany for a decade, from 2009 to 2019.
Jenny says once they settle in and stock the products customers want, there'll be a grand opening. This time, 10 years ago, there was a massive manhunt underway in the North Country. two inmates from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora escaped and were on the loose. It ended when one inmate was killed and another was captured. And after it was all over...
The state's inspector general investigated how it could have happened, including the security loopholes and failures by staff at a maximum security prison and what could have been done differently. The current inspector general, Lucy Lang, spoke with Emily Russell about the report's findings and how the prison system has changed since 2015. The Clinton escape.
highlighted several major areas of deficiency in the administration of that prison, all of them related to internal controls failures. So by way of example, where there were magnetometers. that were set in place to make sure that incarcerated individuals were not able to bring tools from the industry shops where they worked. The incarcerated individuals were permitted to walk around those magnetometers where there were
searches in place for civilian and corrections staff to be searched before they entered the prison from the outside, those searches were not conducted. The result of those two failings alone is that The civilian who worked in the tailor shop was ultimately able to smuggle in hacksaw blades by not being searched on her way in from the outside. And then when she gave them to the two incarcerated individuals who ultimately...
escaped during their employ in the tailor shop, they were able to bring them back to their cells without going through the magnetometers that should have detected them. You mentioned this civilian employee, Joyce Mitchell. who was smuggling in items, including hacksaw blade and other things that helped these two incarcerated people escape from from Clinton Correctional. But still to this day, prison staff are not required to go through a metal.
detector or body scanner when they go into work that could have caught these items from entering Clinton Correctional. But if every staff was required to go through a metal detector, it might take a long time for prison staff to go to work every day. So how do you how does the state address this kind of security loophole? there are increasing controls that have been put in place and of course the existing controls including including not being able to
bring in some of the things that she was known to be bringing in, including in this case, raw meat, in which these tools were embedded. Those sorts of regulations are now being strictly enforced. Path searches are enforced. raise her. Another major failing here was the development of this inappropriate relationship between a staffer and the incarcerated individuals. And of course, it is critically important.
that everyone who works in the state prison system treats incarcerated New Yorkers with dignity and has respectful relationships with them. But that simply cannot go so far as to include doing favors or deviations. from the rules there are more than 11 000 corrections officers who work at the 42 state prisons in new york some of the people that were named in the ig's report about the prison escape still work
at that prison. So why should New Yorkers be confident that that prison and many others around the state are doing what's necessary to prevent another prison escape like the one 10 years ago? New Yorkers should call for the Department of Corrections to work to counter a culture of complacency of the kind that enabled.
the Clinton escape to happen. The increased training and security measures that have been put in place in the 10 years since that escape have no doubt contributed to enhancing the system overall. That said, prisons are by design obscured from the public eye and far too few New Yorkers care about conditions behind bars. So while a conversation about.
the escape of two people who committed heinous crimes does not necessarily square with the conversation about the need for reform of prison conditions. I think you can't have one without the other. Are you confident that... Enough reforms have been put in place to prevent another prison escape like the one that happened 10 years ago? There are tremendous efforts made now.
to train corrections staff about the dangers of inappropriate relationships, about the rules around what may or may not be brought into a prison, and about the importance of following protocols. That said, there is no way in the system the size of ours that we can guard against any particular eventuality. But we pay close attention to.
Every complaint that comes out of the Department of Corrections, we work closely with the department and also with incarcerated individuals, their families and advocates to address any complaints and allegations related to. escape plans to abuse and assault and anything else behind bars. That was New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang speaking with Emily Russell.
We have more news on our website, ncpr.org. Music today by Evan Veenstra of Gananoque, Ontario, and Mark Corey of Watertown. I'm David Summerstein, North Country Public Radio.