Before the Escape
Both convicted of murder, David Sweat and Richard Matt resided at the Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in New York. Matt had been serving 25-years-to-life in prison for kidnapping and killing his former boss, and Sweat had been serving a life term for murdering a sheriff's deputy. They formed a friendship in prison and created an escape plan that hinged on their relationships with the prison's staff.
One prominent figure who helped them was prison seamstress Joyce Mitchell, who supplied them with drill bits and hacksaw blades smuggled in through frozen hamburger meat. Mitchell had sexual contact with Matt and had been reported to have been involved with Sweat as well. In an inspector general's report, Sweat suggested that he had manipulated her loneliness, admitting to telling her that they would go down to Mexico and get a place by the beach together.
Matt also shared a relationship with prison guard Gene Palmer, who gave them the meat that contained the contraband. Palmer claims that he didn't know that the meat contained the tools that would help them escape, but giving them the meat itself was violating prison rules. Additionally, he didn't require them to pass through a metal detector to return to their housing blocks. On top of everything, Palmer accepted Matt's personalized artwork, which often depicted his family.