‘New York Prison Break: The Seduction of Joyce Mitchell,’ a Lifetime documentary, tells the incredible twisted storey of how a small-town mother became a global star because of her role in an extraordinary prison break.
After all, it has sophisticated machinations, horrible misdeeds, and dubious facility conditions — the majority of which link back to Joyce Mitchell, like in ‘The Shawshank Redemption.’
So, because elements like an unrivalled manhunt and manipulation are also present, let’s see how much of this picture – if any – is based on true events, shall we?
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Is New York Prison Break: The Seduction of Joyce Mitchell on Lifetime Based On Really A True Story?
‘New York Prison Break: The Seduction of Joyce Mitchell,’ which airs on Lifetime, is based on a true storey.
It truly tells the storey of Richard Matt and David Sweat’s 2015 jailbreak from the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, with a focus on Joyce Mitchell’s role in the incident.
The two inmates – convicted killers serving near-life sentences – were discovered missing in the early morning hours of June 6, only to discover that their planned getaway driver was prison employee Joyce. She did not, however, appear in the film as described.
Going back to the beginning, Joyce couldn’t help but feel flattered when she began to receive attention from the inmates, particularly Richard and David, who seemed restless and dissatisfied with their daily lives.
Joyce Mitchell infamously helped two convicts escape, leading to a fatal manhunt. New York Prison Break : #TheSeductionOfJoyceMitchell is starting NOW! pic.twitter.com/nQwtfyhNDa
— Lifetime (@lifetimetv) June 19, 2021
What the facility seamstress didn’t realise was that the two men were close friends who’d targeted her as a pawn in their escape plan, so she didn’t mind getting close to them.
As a result, she began to believe in their vision of the future for them all, and she consented to help by bringing in many tools/weapons to aid them in breaching the prison’s four walls.
Not only that, but Joyce was well aware of their plan to kill her husband Lyle, whom Richard referred to in real life as “the glitch,” following their escape so that the three of them could go to Mexico together.
They didn’t want anything to stop them, as the film depicts, but when the time came, the seamstress was unable to carry out the plan devised by the already convicted murders.
She didn’t utilise the sedatives they’d given Lyle, and she didn’t show up with a getaway car near the manholes they’d excavated effectively over time, as promised.
Despite Joyce’s claims that she never intended to show up for Richard and David, she checked herself into a hospital on the evening of their plan’s execution, June 5, complaining of chest symptoms.
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She was so worried about the matter that it affected her health, but nothing could undo what she’d already done, even if unintentionally, so she was arrested on June 12.
Nonetheless, the two escapees were well on their way to Canada by that point, having been forced to adjust their plan, resulting in a nearly three-week nationwide search.
Richard and David had split up while on the run, roughly 18 days after the prison release, due to their differing agendas.
As the Lifetime re-telling examines, it soon culminated in a fatal encounter and further convictions. Richard was spotted in Malone, New York, on June 26, 2015, when he was shot in the head and murdered during a confrontation with patrol officers.
David was caught two days later in Constable, New York, but the ensuing chase resulted in him being shot twice in the shoulder and brought into custody for good.
After pleading guilty to two counts of escape and one count of prison contraband, David was sentenced to another 312 to 7 years in prison and ordered to pay over $80,000 in restitution.
Joyce, on the other hand, pleaded guilty to promoting prison contraband and criminal facilitation and was sentenced to 2⅓ to 7 years in prison, as well as over $80,000 in restitution and over $6,000 in fines.
As a result, it appears that nearly everything is shown in ‘New York Prison Break: The Seduction of Joyce Mitchell‘ happened in actual life.
