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David Sweat apologizes, says abusive prison conditions motivated prison escape

Zach Hirsch
/
NCPR File Photo
David Sweat at a court appearance in 2015

David Sweat said he escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility last summer to get away from abusive conditions inside the prison. And he apologized for the anxiety he caused when he broke out.

Sweat made those statements at a sentencing hearing in Plattsburgh yesterday, where he was sentenced to 7-14 years behind bars for felony charges related to the escape.

That penalty will be added to Sweat’s current life sentence. Sweat pleaded guilty last year. But in the judge’s chambers, before things got started, he tried to change his plea to “not guilty.”

Speaking with reporters, Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said Sweat thought he had a defense, basically, that harsh conditions inside the prison justified the escape. As he summarized Sweat's argument, “It was a matter of duress. Threats that were made upon him. That the circumstances that existed in Clinton Correctional Facility caused him to escape.”

The judge denied the request, and in the courtroom, Sweat returned to his original “guilty” plea. Standing shackled in a green prison uniform, Sweat said he feels remorseful.

“I would like to apologize to the community and people who felt fear, and felt it necessary to leave their homes or their community because of the escape. That was never my intent, and I deeply apologize for that, your honor,” he said.

Sweat and another inmate, Richard Matt, cut and crawled their way out of the maximum security prison last June. That prompted a three-week manhunt with more than a thousand law enforcement officers scouring thick woods and swamps for the two men. Law enforcement officers shot and killed Matt. Sweat was also shot, and captured close to the U.S.-Canada border.

“I don’t know what you were thinking,” Judge Patrick McGill said, spending a few minutes chastising Sweat. If the conditions inside the prison were so bad, and if correction officers were abusive, McGill said, Sweat should have filed a complaint. He asked Sweat, “Did you do anything to bring about a change in the facility?”

“Maybe if you had expended the energy you expended in escaping to reform the program and conditions in the prison, it might have changed the outcome,” he added.

Inmate advocacy groups have alleged violence against inmates at Clinton Correctional Facility, a charge that corrections officers have denied.

McGill ordered Sweat to pay about $80,000 in restitution to New York State. That’s how much it cost to repair the cell block that Sweat and Matt broke out of, state officials have said.

Sweat’s defense attorney, Joe Mucia, said his client can’t afford that. “Mr. Sweat, he has no resources whatsoever.” Mucia said the state Department of Corrections sentenced Sweat to six years in solitary confinement, where he’s not allowed to earn any money. And after he gets out of solitary, Mucia said it would take over a thousand years to pay restitution with prison wages.

Asked how Sweat is expected to pay, District Attorney Andrew Wylie said, “If Mr. Sweat comes into money for whatever purpose or reason it is, then the state will now have an order to impose against Mr. Sweat for restitution for that $79,000.”

A reporter asked again whether Sweat will ever be able to come up with the money, and Wiley said, “I don’t know, are you going to be paying Mr. Sweat to do an interview?”

Wylie has been dealing with this escape for eight months now, and he said he’s itching to move on. There are other issues he wants to focus on, he said, like the heroin epidemic.

But the aftermath of the prison break isn’t over yet. Gene Palmer, a prison guard accused of helping the inmates escape, is fighting the charges against him. His next court date still hasn’t been set. A state Inspector General’s report into the escape is also expected any day.