The State - News from March 21, 1988

The warden of the Oakdale, La., Federal Detention Center that was destroyed last November in an uprising by Cuban prisoners is being promoted to a regional position in California. J.R. Johnson became warden in September, 1986, about five months after the center opened. He moves to San Francisco on April 24 to become assistant director of the Bureau of Prisons’ Western Division, overseeing the nine federal prisons in the Western region. Most of the center’s buildings were burned in fiery riots that began Nov. 21, after the 1,000 Cubans there learned that Fidel Castro had agreed to accept up to 2,500 Cubans who were convicted of crimes or were mentally ill. Cubans at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta also rioted. The Oakdale inmates held 26 hostages for eight days before surrendering.