Inmates at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y. have accused authorities of abuse, claiming that guards beat them while trying to determine where Richard Matt and David Sweat went after they escaped in June.
Prisoners' Legal Services of New York has received over 60 complaints since the escape, with inmates from the Clinton Correctional Facility claiming that they were physically abused, placed in solitary confinement and stripped of privileges, according to The New York Times.
Corrections spokeswoman Linda Foglia said on Tuesday that the allegations have been under investigation for several weeks and referred to the state inspector general, who is examining the prison operations and the escape.
"Any findings of misconduct or abuse against inmates will be punished to the full extent of the law," corrections officials said in a statement to CNN.
One prisoner, Patrick Alexander, who occupied a cell next to Matt's, told the Times that he was handcuffed the night after the escape, taken by three guards into a broom closet and beaten while they placed a plastic bag over his head.
"The officer jumps up and grabs me by my throat, lifts me out of the chair, slams my head into the pipe along the wall," Alexander said, according to Fox News. "Then he starts punching me in the face. The other two get up and start hitting me also in the ribs and stomach."
However, the union that represents state corrections officers referred to the accusations as "one-sided," noting that law enforcement has been cooperating with a state investigation into the escape and is awaiting the results before making an official statement.
"We took this approach because it was a responsible course of action and chose not to counter the wide number of inaccurate facts and misinformation being reported by various new agencies through less than reliable sources," said James Miller, a spokesman for the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association.
"Our course will continue to stay the same regardless of 'allegations' made by a handful of violent convicted felons," he concluded.
On the other hand, Michael Cassidy, an attorney for Prisoners' Legal Services, believes the complaints hold some validity due to the similarities they share in nature.
"The quantity and similarity of the complaints is troubling," he said, adding that inmates' constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment may have been violated.
Cassidy noted that the complaints haven't stopped, with prisoners continuing to claim that their privileges are being denied and that they're receiving threats from officers.
"Things are very tense there right now," he said.
