Mitchell interview

Mitchell tells Lauer on Today that she cooperated with demands for help from Matt and Sweat because Matt had threatened members of her family.

People need to know that I was only trying to save my family.

She said she was depressed because she thought her husband on longer loved her.

I was going through depression and I guess they saw my weakness, and that’s how it all started.

Mitchell says she befriended both men and brought them cookies and brownies. She eventually smuggled tools to them in bags that the prison staff failed to search. The inmates’ escape plot included Mitchell picking them up outside the prison after the breakout, but she suffered a panic attack, and her husband took her to a hospital. Mitchell said Matt and Sweat planned to kill her husband during their getaway.