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Joyce Mitchell tells Matt Lauer in her first-ever interview: 'I just got in over my head'

In an exclusive interview, Joyce Mitchell, the New York prison seamstress who pleaded guilty to helping inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat escape the Clinton Correctional Facility, tells TODAY's Matt Lauer, "I just got in over my head.
/ Source: TODAY

In an exclusive interview, Joyce Mitchell, the New York prison seamstress who pleaded guilty to helping inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat escape the Clinton Correctional Facility, tells TODAY's Matt Lauer, "I just got in over my head."

"I was going through a point in my life — a lot of people go through depression. A lot of people go through that. And I just got in over my head. And I couldn't get out. And I couldn't tell anybody. I couldn't tell my husband. Couldn't tell my family. I couldn't tell my co-workers. I couldn't tell anybody. There's nobody you can tell," Mitchell explained.

Mitchell, 51, sat down with Lauer in Clinton County Jail, where she is awaiting sentencing.

Joyce Mitchell and Matt Lauer
TODAY

Asked whether Richard Matt had "complete control" over her, Mitchell responded affirmatively: "Yes. He was good at that."

Mitchell pleaded guilty to bringing contraband into the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, a felony, and to criminal facilitation, a misdemeanor. She could get up to seven years when she is sentenced.

After three weeks on the run near the Canadian border, Matt was shot and killed on June 26, while Sweat was shot and captured on June 28.

RELATED: Read Joyce Mitchell's statements to police

The interview will air in two parts on TODAY, Monday and Friday, September 14 and 18, and as a special two-hour Dateline Friday, September 18 at 9 p.m. ET.