By Geoff Herbert
syracuse.com
DANNEMORA, N.Y. — A true-crime TV series is revisiting Joyce “Tillie” Mitchell, a prison worker who helped two convicted killers escape an Upstate New York prison.
“Cellmate Secrets” will revisit how Mitchell contributed to the 2015 escape by inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y. A weeks-long manhunt ended with Matt shot dead and Sweat captured near the Canadian border; Mitchell was granted parole and released in February 2020, nearly five years after pleading guilty to promoting contraband and criminal facilitation and was sentenced between two and seven years in prison.
Mitchell, a former seamstress, admitted to smuggling in hacksaw blades through frozen meat for the two inmates, who broke through walls and pipes in a “Shawshank Redemption”-style escape. She was denied parole three times before getting time off for good behavior last year.
“If I could take it all back, I would,” Mitchell said at her sentencing.
ET reports the episode will feature new interviews with former inmate Erik Jensen, who worked with Mitchell in the Dannemora prison’s tailor shop, and described how Matt and Sweat seduced and manipulated her into helping them. The show will also interview Pam White, Mitchell’s supervisor, and Corrections Sergeant Kris Mullady, who oversaw security operations outside the building when the escape occurred.
“Cellmate Secrets: Joyce Mitchell” will air Friday, June 18 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Lifetime. The Lifetime original movie “New York Prison Break: The Seduction of Joyce Mitchell,” starring Penelope Ann Miller as Mitchell, will air at 8 p.m.
The dramatic story was also adapted into a Showtime series directed by Ben Stiller. Patricia Arquette won a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Mitchell in “Escape at Dannemora,” gaining 40 pounds for the role.
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