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 Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, escaped from Clinton
Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, five days ago, cutting
through steel walls, squeezing through a steam pipe and popping out
of a manhole.
More than 450 state, federal and local law enforcement agents were
searching the area north of New York's rugged Adirondack Park on
Wednesday, with the hunt extending into neighboring Vermont, New
York State Police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico told reporters.
Police said on Wednesday night they had closed a stretch of highway
just miles from the prison to investigate a lead and it was likely
to remain closed into Thursday.
The escapees may have had help from a female prison worker who
befriended them, New York State police said.
Before escaping, they discussed heading for Vermont, a rural state
with dense forests, accessible by a ferry across Lake Champlain,
about 40 miles (64 km) south of the prison, police said.
 The longest previous escape from a New York prison lasted just three
days, according to data from the New York Department of Corrections.
In the last decade, freedom lasted less than six hours for 60
percent of the 30 inmates who succeeded in breaking out.
"When you escape, not only do you need the essentials like clothing,
food and shelter, but you need some sort of long-term plan where
your identity will be hidden," said researcher Bryce Peterson, who
focuses on inmates and prisons for the Urban Institute's Justice
Policy Center.
Publicity surrounding the upstate New York prison break, including
photographs and physical descriptions of the tattooed men, make it
extremely difficult for them to remain in the shadows, he said.
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"The only way you could do that successfully is having people on the
outside who will help you," Peterson said. "But the more people you
associate with on the outside, the more likely you are to get
caught."
Matt, who has a history of escape attempts from other lockups, was
serving a sentence of 25 years to life. Sweat was serving a life
sentence.
Once caught, the convicted murderers will each face a criminal
charge of escape, which can carry a seven-year prison term, Horn
said.
"Seven more years means nothing to a lifer," Horn said.
Nationwide, the number of prison escapes has dropped sharply, from
100 inmates per 10,000 in the 1980s to one per 10,000 today,
Peterson said.
(Additional reporting by Scott Malone in Boston; Editing by Angus
MacSwan)
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