Ex-prison worker Joyce Mitchell sent to Bedford Hills

ALBANY – The prison worker who helped a pair of convicted murderers escape from a northern New York prison will serve her sentence in Westchester County.

Joyce Mitchell, 51, was committed Tuesday to the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, where she began her prison sentence for promoting prison contraband, according to the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision's inmate database.

A worker in the Clinton Correctional Facility's tailor shop, Mitchell was sentenced Monday to 2 1/3 to 7 years in prison for her role in the escape of inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat, who led authorities on a three-week manhunt through the Adirondacks that captured international headlines and cost taxpayers at least $1 million a day.

By Wednesday, Mitchell had been sent to the all-female, maximum-security state prison in Bedford Hills, the largest women's prison in the state.

Mitchell pleaded guilty to two contraband charges, which stemmed from her providing blades and tools to the inmates, smuggling it through the prison's security checkpoints by placing them in frozen meat. Matt and Sweat then used the tools to cut through the wall of their cells and into steam pipes, which allowed them to escape to a nearby manhole.

She also admitted to having an inappropriate relationship with Matt, 49, who was shot and killed by authorities in late June. Sweat, 35, was captured and is facing escape charges, despite already serving a life sentence for the murder of Kevin Tarsia, a Broome County sheriff deputy.

Mitchell had originally agreed to be the inmates' getaway driver when they escaped in early June. But she ultimately backed out of the plan, which included having one of the inmates kill her husband.

Follow Jon Campbell on Twitter at @JonCampbellGAN