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Killers practiced escape before breakout from N.Y. prison

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo surveryed a manhole near the prison in Dannemora, N.Y., with other officials.Office of the N.Y. Governor via AP

The two convicted killers who escaped in early June from a maximum-security prison in upstate New York, setting off a three-week manhunt, conducted a dry run of the breakout the night before they fled, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

One of the escaped inmates, David Sweat, who was shot and taken into custody Sunday, has told investigators that he made the practice run the night before he and the other inmate, Richard W. Matt, escaped from the prison, the two people with knowledge of the matter said. While Sweat tested the escape route, Matt apparently stayed behind.

Sweat, who is being treated for his wounds at Albany Medical Center, also told investigators that he and Matt began sawing through the back walls of their cells about six months before they staged their escape from Clinton Correctional Facility, one of the people said. Matt was shot and killed by a federal agent Friday. Sweat's condition was upgraded Tuesday to fair condition from serious.

The escape from the prison, in Dannemora, and the ensuing investigation have exposed lax security and raised questions about the operation of the state's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

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In a separate development Tuesday, the prison agency released a statement announcing that three top officials at the Clinton Correctional Facility and nine other security employees were placed on administrative leave. Among them, one of the people said, were the two men who regularly worked the night shift on the inmates' cellblock and who were on duty the night of the escape.

The state's inspector general, Catherine Leahy Scott, is conducting an inquiry into the policies and procedures at the prison and the circumstances that led to the escape. As part of her investigation, which was ordered by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo nine days after the men broke out, members of her staff have been at the prison in recent days reviewing documents and interviewing prison officials, guards, civilian employees, and inmates. They have been working alongside the state police and FBI agents also investigating the escape.

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The statement from the prison agency did not name the officials placed on administrative leave, but a person briefed on the matter said they were the prison's superintendent, Steven Racette; the first deputy superintendent, Donald L. Quinn; and the deputy superintendent for security, Stephen Brown. The top three officials and nine other uniformed officers have all been placed on paid administrative leave.

Despite required hourly bed checks of the block's 180 cells during nighttime hours, the two correction officers who worked the night shift on the honor block and who were on duty the night of the escape either failed to detect or ignored that the two inmates were crawling through the holes they had cut in the backs of their cells.

Before the actions Tuesday against the two men, who were not named, prison officials had allowed them to continue to work the same night shift on the same cellblock from which the two convicted killers had escaped, the person said.

In describing his test escape, Sweat said he slipped through an opening he had cut in the back of his cell and shinnied down five flights of piping to the tunnels beneath the prison, where he crawled through the hole he and Matt had cut through a brick wall. From there, he has told investigators, he snaked his way through a steam pipe they also had cut holes in, walked down a tunnel, and emerged from a manhole cover two blocks from the prison before returning to his cell, the person said.

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The two men escaped the following night. Prison guards discovered them missing the morning of June 6.

The actions against the prison officials came a day after the disclosure that the FBI has opened a corruption inquiry focused on employees and inmates at the prison. The FBI is investigating drug trafficking and other possible criminal conduct.

The statement by the prison agency said that its assistant commissioner for facilities, James O'Gorman, will oversee the Clinton Correctional Facility until a new superintendent and other top officials are put in place.