NY Prison Guard Who Helped Inmates Escape Released From Jail

A former prison guard who pleaded guilty to assisting David Sweat and Richard Matt escape from the Clinton County Correctional Facility in Northern New York is himself a free man again.

Gene Palmer was released from the Clinton County Jail on Monday after serving four months of his six month sentence. The 58-year-old was accused of hiding hacksaw blades and other instruments inside meat for Sweat and Matt - which they used to cut into pipes and walls inside the prison. Palmer pleaded guilty to two counts of promoting prison contraband.

The escape resulted in a three-week manhunt last summer as authorities searched for the two convicts in many rural areas of Northern New York and the Canadian border. Matt was ultimately killed in a shootout with police. Sweat was spotted by cops and shot when he tried flea back into a wooded area. He survived and is back behind bars.

Joyce Mitchell (below), the prison seamstress who also pleaded guilty for aiding the convicts, is currently serving a seven year prison sentence.