Joyce Mitchell After Dannemora: Where She Is Now

The 2018 Showtime limited series "Escape at Dannemora" tells the story of the Clinton Correctional Facility prison break, with Patricia Arquette playing Joyce Mitchell. The series is now streaming on Netflix. But the real Mitchell had a different outcome than the one on screen.

Mitchell worked as a tailor shop instructor at the prison in Dannemora, New York. There she supervised inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat. According to Screen Rant, she became romantically involved with Matt and allegedly planned to help both men escape. Mitchell smuggled tools into the prison by hiding hacksaw blades, drill bits, and chisels inside frozen hamburger meat. Matt and Sweat used those tools over months to cut through their cell walls and into a steam pipe that led them outside.

The plan called for Mitchell to pick them up in a getaway vehicle. She never showed. Instead, she went to the hospital with chest pains during a panic attack. When investigators questioned her, she confessed within a week, admitting to her relationship with Matt and the smuggling.

Mitchell was charged with promoting prison contraband and criminal facilitation. She pleaded guilty and received a sentence of two-and-a-third to seven years. She also had to pay $6,000 in fines and nearly $80,000 in restitution.

Matt was killed by U.S. Border Patrol on June 26, 2015, after he raised a stolen weapon. Sweat was captured two days later just a mile and a half from the Canadian border. He was shot in the shoulder, survived, and returned to prison with additional years added to his sentence.

Mitchell was denied parole three times before being released in 2020 after serving four years and five months. She now lives in Dickinson Center, New York. Reports from the New York Post say she and her husband are still together, though she is not well regarded in the community. Mitchell keeps to herself and has not commented publicly on the series. She has called the show lies, accusing director Ben Stiller of caring only about money, Screen Rant reported via the New York Post.

• David Sweat
• Escape at Dannemora
• Joyce Mitchell
• Netflix
• Richard Matt
• Showtime