Print this article
In Ben Stiller’s 2018 miniseries
Escape at Dannemora, about a 2015 prison break in New York’s North Country, there’s a disconcertingly moving exchange between the two soon-to-be escapees Richard Matt and David Sweat. Deep in the bowels of Clinton Correctional Facility, mapping a labyrinth of passages, tunnels, and pipes, Matt asks Sweat how long he’s been inside the prison. Twelve years, Sweat tells him. “This is the first time in 12 years,” Matt reminds him, “nobody knows where you are.” These aren’t men you want to root for, but it’s hard to suppress a flash of recognition and solidarity at the connection Matt makes between freedom and privacy. "When was the last time," you ask yourself, "nobody knew where