One of the two prisoners who escaped from Clinton Corrections Facility, David Sweat, was serving time for the murder of Broome County Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Tarisa.
Corrections officer Anthony Rando was working whenTarsiawas killed in the line of duty. Tarsia died almost thirteen years ago.
Rando was finishing up his shift booking people at the county jail. He remembers the then-suspects, David Sweat and Jeffrey Nabinger. “They both had smirks on their faces,” Rando said. “It was a joke to them.”
Sweat is one of the two convicts who escaped from the maximum security prison in Dannemora, New York. He and Richard Matt cut their way out using power tools.
Rando spent his career working in a jail, which is a more temporary holding facility. He says it’s impossible to prevent things from getting inside.
“Prisons and jails were made to keep people in,” he said. “I mean you can get anything in a prison or a jail if you’re crafty or creative enough.”
Rando will retire in a few weeks, after 25 years on the job. When a younger colleague walked by while Rando was being interviewed, Rando said, “little do they know what they’re getting themselves into.”
And he said it’s disheartening to think that Kevin Tarsia’s killer is on the loose.
“Some things you just don’t forget,” Rando said.
