The onetime prison seamstress who helped two convicts break out of a maximum-security prison in upstate New York was released Thursday after more than four years behind bars.
Joyce Mitchell, 55, was released from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility and will be under state supervision in Franklin County until Jan. 8, 2022, officials said.
The former prison seamstress made headlines in 2015 when she helped inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat escape from Clinton Correctional Facility by sneaking them tools. The two convicts pulled off a daring "Shawshank Redemption"-style breakout by sliding through prison pipes.
The escape prompted a three-week manhunt before Matt was shot and killed by law enforcement on June 26, 2015. Sweat was captured two days later.
Mitchell was sentenced to 2 1/3 to seven years for aiding Matt and Sweat. She was denied parole three times before being tentatively approved for conditional release in December for good behavior.
