The towering walls of Clinton Correctional Facility rise over a mainly empty Cook Street in Dannemora on Saturday. State officials say no one has escaped from the main structure since it was built in 1845.

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — In the wake of a prison break and subsequent manhunt, 71 inmates from the Clinton Correctional Facility say they were beaten during interrogations, including one who said that he was punched in the face and had his head slammed against a steel pole.

Inmates who were jailed at the maximum-security facility in Dannemora, New York, when David Sweat and Richard Matt escaped have filed complaints with Prisoners Legal Services of New York claiming abuse, saying that some inmates had been pulled from their cells in the middle of the night and transferred to another facility with only the clothes on their backs.

“It’s been overwhelming, but we are triaging them and trying to assess the veracity of all the complaints,” Prisoners Legal Services Director Karen Murtagh said.

Matt and Sweat, both convicted murderers, escaped from their cells the night of June 5 and made their way down a catwalk and through tunnels before popping out of a manhole a block away from the main wall of the prison.

Matt was shot and killed in the small town of Malone, New York on June 26, and Sweat was shot and captured two days later near the Canadian border.

In a statement, the New York State Corrections Officers Police Benevolent Association, which represents correction officers, called recent news stories of the inmates’ accusations as “one-sided press reports,” describing them as “‘allegations made by a handful of violent convicted felons.”

Murtagh said determining what actually happened is difficult because there is no paper trail for the time  inmates claim they were beaten, because no reports were written.

“It really comes down to their word against whoever they say was beating them,” she said. “That’s going to make our job extra hard.”

Prisoners Legal Services is a nonprofit law firm that represents the 54,000 inmates across the state. Their only power, Murtagh said, lies in litigation if they can prove a case.

NYSCOPBA has made little comment since the escape and accompanying issues, citing the pending investigations, but made a statement on the allegations and news coverage about them.

“The priority of the law enforcement community was the capture of the two convicted murderers. Once that occurred, our focus was to allow the State Inspector General’s Office to conduct their internal investigation, cooperate fully, and hopefully have a role in reforms that would come in the future,” the statement said.

‘NO REPORTS’

Luke Matthews, serving life in prison for murder, told the Plattsburgh Press-Republican in a letter that he was among inmates who, on June 16, were suddenly transferred from Clinton to other facilities.

He said that while he was waiting in a corridor with other inmates, a correction officer “grabbed me by my neck, choking me with both hands … He then forced my head down to my knees and caused severe injuries to my back and neck.”

He said he and the others were “attacked by [Correctional Emergency Response Team] officers whose duty was to simply remove us from the facility and not assault us, because they had ‘egg on their faces’ as a result of the escape.”

‘WATERBOARD THREAT’

The New York Times has reported that Clinton inmate Patrick Alexander, who lived in the cell next to Matt, said he was pulled from his cell the night the escape was discovered, handcuffed and taken to a broom closet for questioning.

He said three guards punched him and slammed his head against the wall. The guards wore no badges, Alexander said in the story.

He also said that one of the guards put a plastic bag over his head and threatened to waterboard him.

Alexander, convicted of murder, said he was interrogated by three correction officers he had never seen before, and an officer wearing a jacket with the initials C.I.U. (Crisis Intervention Unit).

The Times story included several other descriptions from inmates about how they were beaten or transferred to another facility with none of their belongings.

LoTemplio writes for the Plattsburgh, (N.Y.) Press-Republican.