A state board has denied parole to a tailor who played a key role in a prison break that’s the subject of a Showtime miniseries being filmed in the northern New York region where it happened.
Joyce Mitchell will remain behind bars for at least two more years for passing tools to killers Richard Matt and David Sweat, enabling their escape from the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora in June 2015.
The subsequent three-week manhunt ended with Matt shot dead and Sweat captured near the Canadian border.
FILE – In this July 28, 2015 file photo, Joyce Mitchell raises her hand during a court appearance in Plattsburgh, N.Y. The state parole board on Friday, Sept. 8, 2017, denied her parole
Mitchell’s lawyer tells the Plattsburgh Press-Republican the parole board denied her release Friday.
The Mitchells’ son, Tobey, said he and his father are saddened by the news.
‘We are both very heartbroken by this, and so is she,’ he said.
‘I’m disappointed in the decision and need to explore Mrs. Mitchell’s remedies, carefully and completely,’ her attorney Peter Dumas said.
He said her husband, Lyle, ‘is a client and, more importantly, a friend. I’m truly upset for him.’
Mitchell was having a sexual relationship with Richard Matt before the escape.
Patricia Arquette plays Mitchell in Showtime’s ‘Escape at Dannemora,’ being produced by Ben Stiller. Penelope Ann Miller starred as Mitchell in a Lifetime movie that aired in April.