Ten Years Later: Inside the 2015 Clinton Correctional Facility Escape
Special Event Hosted by New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang
June 11 | 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. (ET)

Join the New York State Inspector General’s Office for a special panel event marking the 10th anniversary of the 2015 Clinton Correctional Facility escape—one of the most dramatic prison breaks in recent US history.

Ten Years Later: Inside the 2015 Clinton Correctional Facility Escape will feature key experts who led the State’s response, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the three-week manhunt, the sweeping investigation, and its lasting impact on correctional reform.

The Inspector General’s 150-page report—praised for its detail and credited with driving major reforms—inspired Showtime’s Escape at Dannemora and remains the most comprehensive account of the escape. It drew from thousands of investigative hours, in-depth cell examinations, and over 175 interviews, including with surviving escapee David Sweat and prison employee Joyce Mitchell.

Speakers

Lucy Lang

Lucy Lang

Inspector General, New York State Offices of the Inspector General

Inspector General Lucy Lang oversees investigations into corruption, fraud, and abuse in New York State government. Lang previously served as Director of the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College, a national criminal justice organization. She served as an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, where she prosecuted violent crimes including homicides, and served as Special Counsel for Policy and Projects, creating a first-of-its-kind college class for incarcerated students and prosecutors to develop policy together, now a national model.

Lang is a Presidential Leadership Scholar, a member of the Council on Criminal Justice, a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, has served on the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section and served on many New York State Bar Association task forces. She has been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, the New York Daily News, and many others. Lang is the author of “March On!,” a children’s book about the 1915 Women’s March for Suffrage in New York City. Lang was recently recognized on City and State’s Law Power 100 list for her unwavering commitment to protecting New York’s most vulnerable.

Lang is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Columbia Law School, where she was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Gender and Law and has served as a Lecturer-in-Law, and is a graduate of the Executive Public Leaders Programme at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford.

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Anthony Annucci

Anthony Annucci

Former Commissioner, New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision

Anthony J. Annucci was named the Acting Commissioner for the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, effective May 1, 2013. He has been employed with the Department for more than 36 years, and he started his career in 1984 as Deputy Counsel. He then rose to become Deputy Commissioner and Counsel in 1989, and later, Executive Deputy Commissioner in 2007.

Before joining the Department, he worked for four years as a Law Secretary to a Kings County Acting Supreme Court Judge, who sat in Criminal Term. Prior to his enrollment in Law School in 1977, he had worked first as an Investigator with the State Senate Select Committee on Crime, and then as a Researcher for the Policy Sciences Center, studying illegal gambling and loan sharking in New York City. His entire career within the field of criminal justice now spans more than 44 years.

As the Acting Commissioner for the Department, he oversaw an agency with 52 correctional facilities, and approximately 32,000 incarcerated individuals, 35,000 parolees, and 27,000 staff. The combined annual operations and capital budget for the Department is approximately $3.3 billion. Among the most notable program initiatives he advanced are alternatives to segregated confinement, new medication-assisted treatment capability, and a dramatic expansion of college programming.

In his 36-plus years with the Department, Mr. Annucci drafted legislation that has been signed into law by five different Governors. As of 2021, the total prison cost avoidance savings, resulting from legislation he either wrote entirely, or assisted in the drafting, are close to $3 billion.

Mr. Annucci has twice been recognized by the New York State Bar Association: once for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Corrections, and the other for Excellence in Public Service. He earned his B.S in Psychology at Fordham University, his M.A. in Criminal Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and his Juris Doctor at Brooklyn Law School. He grew up in Brooklyn, is married, and is also an accomplished pianist.

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Keshia Clukey

Keshia Clukey

New York State Correspondent, Newsday

Keshia Clukey is a Newsday correspondent based in Albany, N.Y., where she covers state government, politics, and policy. A native of Plattsburgh, N.Y., she holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Utica College and a master’s in investigative journalism from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

Keshia has reported for several major outlets, including the Albany Times Union, Politico, and Bloomberg, earning recognition from both state and national press organizations.

She spent June 2015 covering the Clinton Correctional Facility escape for the Times Union, during which she was interviewed by outlets such as CNN, the BBC, and Dateline, and appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 and Nancy Grace. The following year, she returned to the North Country to report for Politico Magazine on the escape’s lasting impact. She continued covering the aftermath, including the New York State Inspector General’s report, for Politico.

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Joseph A. D'Amico

Joseph A. D'Amico

Former New York State Police Superintendent

Joseph A. D’Amico was nominated by Governor Andrew Cuomo on December 22, 2010, and was unanimously confirmed by the New York State Senate as the 14th Superintendent of the New York State Police on January 31, 2011.

Prior to his confirmation as Superintendent, D’Amico served as Chief Investigator for the Office of the New York State Attorney General, where he oversaw and coordinated the efforts of 300 criminal and civil investigators statewide. These investigative units include the Organized Crime Task Force, the Auto Insurance Fraud Unit, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and the Investigations Bureau.

Prior to that, Superintendent D’Amico had a 27-year career with the New York City Police Department, where he served in many patrol and investigative assignments in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens, ultimately rising to the rank of Deputy Chief. He has commanded numerous high-profile and extensive criminal investigations during the course of his NYPD and AG careers.

Among his many assignments with the New York City Police Department, D’Amico served as the Commanding Officer of the Police Commissioner’s Real Time Crime Center. He was instrumental in developing a state-of-the-art, 24-hour information and investigative support center to assist Detectives in solving violent crimes right from the scene of the crime. The Crime Center is a first-of-its-kind project in US law enforcement. Prior to this position, he served as the Commanding Officer in the Deputy Commissioner of Operations, Manhattan South Detective Operations, Queens North Detective Operations, and Internal Affairs Bureau, Groups 21 and 41. He has also held the positions of Executive Officer in Detective Bureau Manhattan, and in the 43rd and 44th precincts.

Superintendent D’Amico received his Bachelor of Science degree in Management from the State University of New York, and he graduated from the Police Management Institute at Columbia University’s School of Business. He resides in Rockland County with his wife Judith and their four children.

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Introductory Remarks

Catherine Leahy-Scott

Catherine Leahy-Scott

Former Inspector General, New York State Offices of the Inspector General

Bio.

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