The Escape at Dannemora: 10 Years Later

DANNEMORA, NY (WVNY/WFFF)

It’s been 10 years since the notorious Dannemora prison break that thrust the North Country into the national spotlight.

Most of the world doesn’t know the small town of Dannemora, New York, home to Clinton Correctional Facility, even exists.

On the morning of June 6, 2015, that changed.

Charlie Lawfer was a corrections officer at Clinton Correctional, at the time.

“I was working the midnight shift; I was C block. (It was) just a normal night, you know. Me and my partner, Josh. Nothing crazy happened all night, said Lawer, now a Sheriff’s deputy in Manatee County, Florida. “At about 5:30, I think, in the morning, somewhere around there, a sergeant came in, said we had to do a standing live count, which is rare because this doesn’t happen. He said there was an