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 Authorities did not say whether they believed the corrections
officer, whose name was not released, would face charges or if he
was believed to have assisted in the breakout at the maximum
security Clinton Correctional Facility in the upstate New York
community of Dannemora.
The U.S. Marshals Service has put escapees Richard Matt and David
Sweat on its 15 Most Wanted Fugitives List, and the manhunt, now in
its 14th day, has widened to encompass the entire country. But many
believe the escapees remain in the heavily wooded regions of New
York's Adirondack Mountains and Vermont's Green Mountains.
"A correction officer was placed on administrative leave this
evening as part of the ongoing investigation into the escape at
Clinton Correctional Facility," the New York state Department of
Corrections and Community Supervision said in a statement.
It said no further details would immediately be released.
Separately, Major Charles Guess of the New York State Police told
reporters that investigators had spent "countless hours"
interviewing another prison worker, Joyce Mitchell, who is accused
of assisting in the breakout.
Mitchell, 51, a training supervisor in the prison tailor shop who is
charged with giving hacksaw blades to the convicted murderers, lost
her nerve to drive their getaway car and instead checked into a
hospital with a panic attack, authorities said.
"(We) won’t characterize if we have all information we need from
Joyce Mitchell at this point," Guess said.
The busted prison cell walls, steam pipe and manhole cover the
convicts slipped through to escape have been repaired, allowing
authorities to lift a lockdown at the maximum security prison,
Daniel Martuscello, a deputy commissioner of state corrections, said
at a news conference.
Meanwhile, law enforcement officers, assisted by sniffer dogs, have
so far searched 160 seasonal homes and unoccupied buildings and 585
miles (941 km) of trails and railroad beds.
New York State Police said on Friday they were investigating
unconfirmed sightings of the two men walking near the New
York-Pennsylvania border.
Witnesses told police last Saturday they saw two men fitting the
escapees' descriptions in the town of Erwin, and witnesses reported
seeing two similar looking men the next day some 11 miles (18 km)
south in the town of Lindley, walking toward the border.
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Experts say the escapees' range is limited by their survival skills.
"They can disappear very easily but to survive is another story, and
that's really predicated on their plan and their equipment and, of
course, their abilities,” said Pat Patten, who was hired to help
with the 2003 capture of Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph after more than
five years on the run in the Appalachian Mountains.
Matt, 48, and Sweat, 35, broke out of prison at the height of the
region's black fly season, when even the most hardened outdoorsmen
douse themselves in insect repellent and wear head nets to guard
against bug bites that can cause extreme irritation and sometimes
even death.
After being incarcerated for so long, Patten said, the men will not
fare well in the woods and are likely relying on civilization,
including abandoned seasonal homes and camps, to gather food and
equipment needed to stay hidden.
Patten said interactions with civilization are commonly where
fugitives trip up.
Matt has a history of escapes, including one in 1986 in which he
broke out of New York's Erie County Correctional Facility, only to
be caught five days later in a family apartment near Buffalo.
(Additional reporting by Katie Reilly in New York and Alex
Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles,; Editing by Ken Wills and Louise
Heavens)
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