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Prison escapee David Sweat returned to maximum security prison

By Andrew V. Pestano
Convicted murderers David Sweat and Richard Matt escaped on June 6 from the Clinton Correctional Facility. Matt, 48, was killed while on the run on June 26 and Sweat, 35, was captured two days later. Image courtesy of New York State Police/UPI
Convicted murderers David Sweat and Richard Matt escaped on June 6 from the Clinton Correctional Facility. Matt, 48, was killed while on the run on June 26 and Sweat, 35, was captured two days later. Image courtesy of New York State Police/UPI | License Photo

ROMULUS, N.Y., July 5 (UPI) -- Convicted murderer David Sweat has been returned to a maximum-security prison on Sunday after recovering from gunshot wounds at a hospital.

Sweat, 35, was captured when he was shot twice in the torso by a state trooper on June 28 after a threatening and daring 23-day prison break from Clinton Correctional Facility. Richard Matt, 48, his accomplice in the escape, was shot and killed two days before Sweat's capture.

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"David Sweat was released from Albany Medical center at 3:05 a.m. and is now incarcerated at the maximum-security Five Points Correctional Facility in Romulus, N.Y.," New York State Corrections and Community said in a statement, adding that details of his transportation would not be released for security reasons.

"Sweat will remain in the infirmary during the initial-24-hour period for the purpose of a medical evaluation. Following his discharge from the infirmary, Sweat will be housed in the Five Points Special Housing Unit in a single cell within the facility's 150-bed, 23-hour confinement unit," the statement said.

Sweat will be charged with escape but he's already serving a life sentence for shooting a sheriff's deputy in 2002. He will also be placed on active suicide watch at the prison.

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Five Points was opened in 2000 and currently houses nearly 1,300 inmates out of a capacity of 1,500 along with 669 employees, including 511 security personnel. Each cell has a bed, a desk, a toilet, a sink and a shower controlled by the prison.

Steven Racette, the superintendent at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, two other high-level prison administrators and nine guards are on leave "as part of the ongoing review," according to a statement released by the New York Department of Corrections.

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