12 Clinton Correctional facility employees suspended as FBI investigates prisoners' escape

A dozen officials from Clinton Correctional facility, including its superintendent, have been placed on administrative leave in the wake of the investigation into the recent escape of two prisoners from the maximum-security prison. The New York State Department of Corrections said that three of the officials are members of the prison's executive team and nine are security staff.

The FBI is investigating Clinton Correctional, exploring possibilities of drug trafficking and other criminal behavior. A new inquiry is also being fueled by evidence uncovered by authorities while investigating Richard Matt and David Sweat's jailbreak. Corrections officer Joyce Mitchell has been accused of smuggling in the tools Matt and Sweat used to break out of prison, while another prison worker, Gene Palmer, is charged with delivering those tools.

Matt was killed before capture; Sweat was shot in the torso and remains in stable condition. Sweat has told authorities that he and Matt began preparing for their jailbreak six months before actually making their escape, The New York Times reports. The pair practiced the escape the night before they enacted it for real on the morning of June 6.