Jack Thurston
June 12, 2025
DANNEMORA, N.Y. — The current head of the watchdog agency that investigates claims of corruption, fraud, waste, and abuse in New York State government said she believes the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has significantly improved its operations since the 2015 escape of Richard Matt and David Sweat from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.
Inspector General Lucy Lang called the help the convicted murderers received and the sloppy attitude inside the prison "the perfect storm" that made it possible for Matt and Sweat to burrow their way through the bowels of the prison to a manhole, and then to several weeks on the run.
In 2016, Lang's predecessor, Catherine Leahy-Scott oversaw an investigation that resulted in the publication of a report into failures that led to the prison escape. The lengthy document referred to a "culture of carelessness" inside the prison that allowed for contraband to be smuggled in to aid Matt and Sweat in their escape. It also made a series of recommendations that would reduce the chances of another escape. Those included tunnel checks, more rigorous bed checks, the use of clear bags by staff, and a recommitment to security measures such as preventing contractors' tools from sitting around unmonitored.
"With respect to the 'culture of carelessness,' we want to encourage the department and all law enforcement to be mindful of internal controls, to make sure that they're following protocols like not filling out check sheets suggesting they have checked every bed when they haven't yet checked every bed, but also, to do it in a way that treats the residents with dignity," Lang said in an interview with NBC5 News. "It can be very hard, even with extreme vigilance, to determine if every single thing is being followed to a T. I am confident that there are people on the ground at the prisons who are working to follow all of those protocols and that they have become much more rigorous in committing to consistency across facilities and following the recommendations made by the report."
Lang said continued vigilance is important, considering how New York taxpayers had to foot the bill for approximately $23.5 million in repair costs to the facility and overtime pay for people involved in the search for Matt and Sweat.
"We must commit to making sure that that never happens again, and that the department is following rigorously its commitment to conducting security checks to prohibiting unauthorized relationships and to making sure that contraband isn't brought into facilities," Lang said.
10 years later: Albany hosts special presentation to commemorate prison break in Dannemora10 years later: Albany hosts special presentation to commemorate prison break in Dannemora
The New York Inspector General said more than half of the nearly 6,000 complaints her office receives every year alleging corruption and fraud in state government are related to corrections department issues. She said because of that, she visited each of New York's 42 prisons.
"I've met with the staff, the administration, the incarcerated folks at those prisons, and I have staff on the ground visiting prisons regularly to follow up on complaints, to do spot checks, to communicate with staff and to do all we can to identify gaps before they result in any kind of a breach, much less of the scale that we saw with the Clinton escape," Lang said. "We are hopeful that the recommendations made in this report have been taken very much to heart and that over the decade since that terrifying escape, that massive changes have been made and that the facilities in the North Country are doing all they can to prevent this kind of catastrophe from occurring again."
Inspector General Lang also held an event in Albany to reflect on the 10th anniversary of the prison escape. As NBC5 News reported from the New York capital, that event featured comments from several high-level people who were involved in the manhunt for Matt and Sweat and the subsequent investigation.
This was one story in an NBC5 News primetime special, "Escape from Dannemora: 10 Years Later." Watch the full special on our website or visit the MyNBC5 YouTube channel. It also included interviews with the New York Inspector General, a relative of one of the escapees, and members of law enforcement critical to the successful conclusion of the search for escaped killers Richard Matt and David Sweat.
