An investigation of how two convicts broke out of a maximum security Prison in Northern New York is causing authorities to ask: what can be learned from the case? The prison break wasn’t anywhere near Onondaga County, but Sheriff Gene Conway says it’s common sense to review policies.
“You look at your own operation and you take that as an opportunity to either reassess or reevaluate or do an overall assessment of what are security features are. I’m quite confident most every sheriff in New York State has done that or is doing that or is talking about it.”
Conway says there are programs and health concerns and visitors in the justice center that present possibilities for people to interact with inmates.
The escape of David Sweat and Richard Matt ended this past weekend. Sweat was discovered north of Malone, chased and shot before being arrested and hospitalized. Matt was found in a forested area just south of Malone, where he was hiding with a shotgun, and shot and killed. Authorities hope to interrogate Sweat to find out what allowed them to stage the escape, including help they might have received from prison staff.
Utica College Criminal Justice Professor Raymond Thilo questions their placement in a prison program.
“Why were violent, the worst of the worst prisoners, allowed on something called the honor block, where they had special privileges, could wear civilian clothes, and allowed to develop relationships internally with corrections staff?”
Susan Fennessey is Director of the Criminal Justice Program at Bryant and Stratton here in Syracuse and trains people for these kinds of positions. She wonders if some workers might get too familiar with inmates.
“I think training, new hire and refreshing, periodic training. I know they all go through it, but I think from time to time they’re going to have to look at the appropriateness of reminding anyone working within prison walls as to the clients that they have in front of them, the quality of the inmates they have and what the inmates have been involved in.”
She notes some facilities have volunteers coming in for programs that might need more screening. Fennessey calls the escape an eye opener and believes it will likely impact other prisons and their policies.
