Two Cons Escape from Dannemora

Adk Jeff wrote

It was residents of the prison region - the 2 arrested employees and 12 suspended administrators and officers - who were responsible for the escape in the first place.

Seems to me the charges should be pretty serious and the charges I heard seem kind of light to me. From CNN:

"Mitchell was arrested Friday by New York State Police and charged with one felony count of promoting prison contraband in the first degree and one misdemeanor count of criminal facilitation in the fourth degree. She pleaded not guilty that evening, at which time Judge Mark Rogers set a $220,000 bond (or $110,000 cash) to secure her release."

"Officer Gene Palmer, 57, faces one count of promoting dangerous prison contraband, two counts of destroying evidence and one count of official misconduct, a misdemeanor, attorney Andrew Brockway said. The contraband charge carries the heaviest possible punishment, up to seven years in prison."

warp daddy wrote

Yes , stay safe guys, these  sociopaths are not to be trifled with , call 911 .

This incident is incredulous , who in the hell ever though Maximun Security prisoners would ever be allowed to roam the prison in civilian clothes and live in an FN HONOR house and that the guards are allowed to Actually SLEEP on the job ????

This need a serious external  INDEPENDENT inquiry and a deep,dive into the  operational environment and policies at that place .

Seems Warp nailed this one

Yup, prisons are big business in the North Country, and the escape has exposed incompetence from the top - the administrators who established the policies that allow prisoners to be treated like hotel guests - to the bottom - the civilians and Corrections Officers who carry out the day to day work.  Now there's a major investigation by the FBI into widespread drug trafficking and contraband smuggling.  It appears the problems run deep.  There was plenty of joy and relief state-wide when Matt and Sweat were finally captured, you're going to see those emotions transition to anger and disgust as the probe into how they escaped progresses.

Brittany Taylor, who is the Marketing Director at Titus Mountain, published a really nice letter in today's Adirondack Daily Enterprise, expressing thanks to the citizens of the region who supported the 1000+ law enforcement officers who participated in the manhunt for the escapees.  Like Brittany, I think the support shown by the community is really great, my beef is with those on the inside who allowed / facilitated the escape in the first place.  Here's Brittany's letter in full:

The past week at Titus Mountain has been anything but ordinary; we've been the epicenter of the largest national news event in the North Country since the 1980 Olympics at Lake Placid. You can read all about the search, the convicts and the capture in countless papers or flip to any news channel to see the reports. I'm not a reporter, and I don't have much of an inside scoop on anything. Instead, I would like to take the time to say thank you to the community as a whole and give my take on how our community came together.

The first night that law enforcement needed to be fed, our food and beverage manager was on the phone with local vendors to see if there was anything they could do. Bimbo Bakeries (Freihofer's), Glazier and Mo's Pub & Grill assisted without a second of hesitation, as did the Malone KFC. Our staff left the phones to me and went up to start feeding the droves of officers getting off their shifts, and they stayed until everyone was fed. They volunteered their time for six days, and we couldn't be more proud of our staff.

When word got out that these men and women were going to be here for a while to ensure the safety of our community, donations started rolling in left and right. By Sunday evening, we had served over 1,200 sandwiches, 200 pounds of fruit, hundreds of gallons of soups, innumerable baked goods and over 500 gallons of coffee - and it couldn't have been done without the support of our fellow community members and businesses donating their time and resources.

It was said by an officer that this might not have been possible without the logistical help that only Malone and our inhabitants could offer. Our lodge was perfect grounds for a command post, and the Titus Mountain radio towers and repeaters aided in keeping the myriad of agencies on the same page. Titus Mountain and Mo's Pub & Grill staff volunteered hours on end to make field lunches for searchers to take with them, and community members came in throughout the day with new donations of food. Local businesses set up grab-and-go stations for law enforcement to refresh themselves. I witnessed everyday people helping however they could from a simple thank-you to our officers to acts of kindness where people put Dunkin' Donuts gift cards on the windshields of police cruisers.

Throughout the process, every single officer we had the privilege of serving said thank you to us. Despite the high stress of the situation and the countless hours that they had been on their feet, every officer was appreciative of everything that the greater Malone area was doing for them. At the conclusion of the search, several officers came through the kitchen and shook every volunteer's hand and said, "Thank you." I watched in awe as volunteers thanked officers and officers thanked volunteers as if they owed something more to each other.

On Sunday evening, I started to drive home to put this chapter of Titus' prominence behind me, only to come across another display of our phenomenal community. Numerous times I saw people in the rain holding signs saying "Thank you" so that officers leaving the mountain could see just how appreciative they were. I drove through town, where it seemed every business had changed its message board to show gratitude to all of the agencies helping. I stopped at Mo's and witnessed rounds of drinks being purchased for off-duty officers. I saw countless videos of citizens lining the streets thanking the officers.

It's my time to say thanks.

On behalf of myself and Titus Mountain Family Ski Center, I want to say thank you to every law enforcement officer who made Malone his or her home for the past week. Thank you for your tireless hours at checkpoints, for the miles of swamps and bug-infested woods you hiked through, and thank you for the effort that you exerted to make sure that our community could feel safe at night. This thank-you goes out to the DOCCS (Department of Corrections and Community Supervision) Corrections Emergency Response Team, New York State Police, Vermont State Police, Border Patrol, U.S. Marshals, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Environmental Conservation forest rangers, EnCon Police, Franklin County Sheriff's Department, and Malone and Albany police departments.

I want to say thank you to every business who helped make our law enforcement's jobs just a little bit easier. Thank you for your thousands of dollars of donations, for your countless hours of volunteering, and thank you for your willingness to help us help them. This thank-you goes out to Dunkin' Donuts, Amvets, the ARC, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Burger King, Dicky's Barbecue, Little Caesar's, KFC, Dairy Queen, Mo's Pub & Grill, Bimbo Bakeries, Glazier, Renzi, Coca-Cola, Adirondack Growers, KC Salon & Company, local schools, Walmart, and Grab & Go for COs.

I want to say thank you to every individual who opened his or her heart and gave our law enforcement a little taste of home. Thank you for your endless donations, for your countless hours of volunteering, and thank you for your positive thoughts and words of encouragement. This thank-you goes out to the Johnston, White, Smith, Lester, Cook, Johnson, McCarthy, Manley, Cositore and Duquette families as well as Troop B wives.

In the commotion of everything going on at our Upper Lodge, we tried our best to keep track of everyone who helped in any way. However, if we forgot your name in our above thank-you, we sincerely apologize. Please know that every single person's and business' help was greatly appreciated.

I want to take a few sentences from our first post we made when the news first broke. "We are 100 percent confident that the fine men and women of the law enforcement community will return these men to custody," and, "We've always been proud of our Titus community and are humbled at how we can come together when needed." Truer words have never been spoken.

Jeff thanks for posting that letter

Major props to the Titus community

Titus is a class act , proud of thee crew there , they are number 1 in my book for customer service !!! PROUD to call TITUS our HOME MOUNTAIN


GREAT job Brittany and the entire mountain crew ...... HUGE PROPS to you all !! CU u guys next December with our entire posse again

Warp

That letter by itself deserves a patronage to Titus. I have skied there many years ago and I will make an effort to buy a ticket for myself and "she who must be obeyed" there again.

Can't believe  they are doing a trial for a guy serving life without parole. Nice little reward with extra time out of prison and sweet waste of money.