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Parole denied for North Country woman who helped 2 killers escape

Joyce Mitchell at a June court appearance with her lawyer.
ncpr.org
Joyce Mitchell at a June court appearance with her lawyer.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)  The state parole board has denied early release for prison tailor Joyce Mitchell, who helped two killers escape from a maximum-security facility in northern New York in 2015.

Mitchell had a parole hearing last week at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County. In a decision released Monday, the board said Mitchell's release would be "incompatible with the welfare of society."

The 52-year-old Mitchell was sentenced to 2-1/3 to 7 years in prison for helping murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat escape in June 2015 from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora (dan-uh-MAWR'-uh), near the Canadian border. She supervised them in the prison's tailor shop.

Matt was killed three weeks later by searchers in woods west of the prison. Sweat was shot and captured two days later near the border.

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