A New York inmate who pulled off an elaborate escape from a prison in early June and was shot and recaptured by authorities days ago will face a disciplinary hearing to figure out what should happen to him now.
A source within the New York Department of Corrections who is close to the case of David Sweat told CNN that the convict’s hearing will be closed to the public. The date and time of the hearing won’t be released either, the source said, and it will be several weeks before the outcome is announced.
Sweat will not have an attorney, the source said. In the meantime, the prisoner will be confined, alone, to a cell that is 105 square feet.
On Sunday, Sweat was released from Albany Medical Center and taken to maximum security Five Points Correctional Facility in Romulus, New York, according to the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
Authorities shot Sweat and apprehended him on June 28 after he’d been on the lam for weeks with another inmate, Richard Matt.
Sweat has been talking to investigators about how the men managed to drill their way out of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, on June 6.
Matt was shot and killed a few days before Sweat was caught.
Sweat was recovering from his injuries in the hospital but was released from there just after 3:00 a.m. Sunday, but department officials kept information about how he was transported a secret citing security concerns.
It’s unclear if he’s still in the prison infirmary where he was placed on suicide watch.
Five Points opened in 2000.
In 2011, an escape from the prison was thwarted and contraband was found, according to news reports.
There was a full prison lockdown there in October 2012 after a fight among inmates, according to the department.
What’s next for Sweat
Sweat will be subject to an internal disciplinary hearing at Five Points, and could face separate criminal charges in a New York state court, according to Karen Murtagh, the executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, a state-sponsored nonprofit that provides legal representation to New York state inmates.
The department can impose a long time solitary confinement, she said.
“It can be years and years and years. There is really no limit to how long they could sentence him to solitary,” she said.
But solitary doesn’t typically mean being placed in dark conditions. It can often mean that a prisoner cannot use the phone, receive packages or have access to a commissary, she said.
Attorney: Joyce Mitchell destroyed pills
Authorities have said Matt and Sweat had originally planned to meet prison tailor Joyce Mitchell, who would drive them away.
The convicted murderers had then planned to kill Mitchell’s husband, Lyle, before fleeing to Mexico, officials said.
The night of the escape, Mitchell did not show up, forcing the fugitives to improvise on the run for more than three weeks.
On Monday, Mitchell’s attorney told CNN that Matt gave Mitchell pills that he claimed would incapacitate Lyle, but that Mitchell had no idea what they were exactly, and destroyed them.
The attorney, Stephen Johnston, said, as he has in the past, that his client was never part of a plan to harm Lyle.