Kerik: Prison Worker Who Aided Escapees Possibly a 'Decoy'

Joyce Mitchell, the prison worker who is accused of supplying two New York convicts with tools used in a daring prison escape over a week ago, may not have been central to the men's plot, former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik told NBC's "Today" show Monday.

"She could have been a decoy," Kerik told correspondent Carson Daly. "These guy were looking at life. They were locked in a 12-by-8 cell. They had a plan, a good plan, [and] it took weeks for it to come to fruition."

But still, he said he doesn't know if she was actually the key to their escape, despite statements from prosecutors in the case that say Mitchell actually not only planned to drive their getaway car, but she planned to drive the escapees, convicted killers Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, to her house to kill her husband.

Kerik said Monday he believes Matt and Sweat could have had a secondary plan.

"She thought she was supposed to be the pickup, [but] they had to have had cellphones ... they could have contacted somebody out on the outside," said Kerik.

He also said that prisons have security checks, but the last time the escaped prisoners were seen was at 10:30 p.m., and they were not discovered missing until 5:30 a.m.

"There were probably 14 different checks within the cell that could have been made but obviously weren't," said Kerik. "It was seven hours before anybody realized they were gone."

He said he also wants to know why the prison created an honors dorm that housed "somebody who killed a cop and an escape artist already convicted for escape. Who gave them certain freedoms within the institution?"

Still, Kerik said, he believes it's a "matter of time" before Matt and Sweat are captured.

Watch the video here.

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