But Parole Policy Is Still Criticized : 6 Months After Cuban Prison Riots, Inmates’ Legal Limbo Reduced

Six months after desperate Cuban detainees took 138 hostages and seized control of federal prisons in Atlanta and Oakdale, La., the government is paroling them in unprecedented numbers.

But the government program baffles some of the inmates and their lawyers. They complain that the parole policy is incoherent and inconsistent, quickly releasing scores of men yet keeping hundreds with sometimes minor criminal records behind bars without apparent reason.

According to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1,093 detainees have been freed since the uprisings, compared to 92 released in the six months preceding the riots. INS officials deny the uprisings prompted the accelerated release policy.

1,208 Deemed Unfit

In all, since the riots ended in early December, 2,224 Cubans have been recommended for release and 1,208 have been deemed unfit for the streets, said Duke Austin, spokesman for the INS in Washington. Twenty-four detainees have been marked for deportation, and 300 more will have their fates decided in panel reviews by May 31.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III promised the full reviews as part of an agreement that ended the riots, in which one Atlanta detainee was killed and several others were injured. None of the hostages was injured.

The 2,400 men in detention at Atlanta and Oakdale last fall had committed crimes after arriving in this country from the Cuban port of Mariel in 1980, when Fidel Castro allowed 125,000 Cubans to leave.

At the time of the riots, however, the detainees had served their sentences and were being held indefinitely at the behest of the INS.

Some had been held in this legal limbo for more than four years when they learned that the State Department and Cuba had reactivated a 1984 agreement for deportation of “excludable” immigrants.

Short Notice Blamed

The Oakdale center erupted in flames on Nov. 21; the Atlanta prison fell to the Cubans two days later. The Justice Department would later lay partial blame for the riots on the scant four-hour notice given prison officials by the State Department.

The Louisiana siege ended after eight days, but Atlanta’s uprising went on until Dec. 4, becoming one of the longest in federal prison history. Damage at the two prisons was estimated at $64 million.

The prisons were shut down, and the detainees, some of whom insisted that they would rather die than return to Cuba, were scattered to prisons across the country. Since then, most have been held in “lock-down” status, confined to special seclusion areas.

“They just sit in those cells, waiting and getting depressed,” said Linda Serrano of Atlanta, whose common-law husband, Manuel Casalis Noy, was approved for parole in November but has yet to be released.

Despite the release statistics, some advocates for the detainees--including Bishop Augustin Roman of Miami, who helped end the sieges--maintain that the government has not completely lived up to its promise.

‘Just Being Interviewed’

“The detainees aren’t being given full reviews, they’re just being interviewed. What’s more, the government doesn’t even make an official record of these panel reviews, something you must have if there is to be an effective appeal process,” said Karen Ellingson, a Legal Aid lawyer in Minneapolis who has sat in on more than 70 interviews conducted by the 20 two-person INS review teams.

The pace of the reviews has stepped up since the riots, detainee advocates say.

Late in April, Justice Department spokesman Patrick Korten said the accelerated, post-riot releases reflected a more liberal parole policy. However, Craig Raynsford, associate counsel at INS, said, “I assure you these people are not being more favobably treated because they rioted.”

He said the number of parolees has risen sharply because the review procedure implemented last June was slow and laborious, and only recently began to bring about large numbers of releases.

“There’s a cumulative effect at work here,” he said. “Our parole approval rate remains slightly above 60%, the same as it was before the riots.”

Swamped With Calls

Gary LeShaw, an attorney who works with the Atlanta-based Coalition to Support Cuban Detainees, said his office is still swamped with calls for help. More than 1,100 men approved for release remain in prison “for one reason or another, such as a shortage of halfway houses or lack of sponsors,” he said.

Supporters of the detainees note that, prior to the riots, all but about 20 of the releases were to halfway houses. Since December, hundreds of detainees have been freed directly to their families and sponsors.

“Some detainees are being released right away, almost pushed out onto the street, while others, including some who have good prison records and committed far less serious crimes, remain behind bars for months,” said LeShaw. “Nobody seems to know what’s going on.”

Although the 20 review teams might differ in style and approach, Raynsford said all look for the same thing in making recommendations: “Whether the detainee is presently nonviolent and likely to stay that way, whether he is likely to present a threat to the community, and whether he is likely to violate his parole.”

He also noted that a special appeals tier had been created for detainees who are turned down for parole. Even those who have been scheduled for “repatriation” to Cuba can appeal.

INS Is ‘Judge and Jury’

“But these are just paper appeals,” said Ellingson. “You don’t get to face your accusers. Besides, it’s just another case of the INS, which has been responsible for the incarceration of the detainees, acting as their judge and jury.”

She gave a recent experience as an example of why the process is so frustrating:

“Officials of Dismas House, a nonprofit facility in Kansas City, recently interviewed 45 detainees who had been approved for parole. The halfway house took 18 of them and left the others stranded in prison, not even knowing why they weren’t selected, much less when they would be released.”

Asked why, the director of Dismas House, the Rev. Everett Thornton, said he had room for only 18 detainees. “We try and look for motivation, that’s the most important thing,” he said.

But Ellingson said other factors are involved, such as a detainee’s appearance and his ability to speak English, “things that really shouldn’t matter that much.”

Fairness Questioned

Even some detainees who have been released question the fairness of the INS process. One of them is Mario Ochoa of Brooklyn, who was released in March, just three weeks after his panel hearing.

“I think I was released so quick because my wife went to Washington several times and talked to congressmen and reporters about my case. She really worked hard for me,” said Ochoa, who finished serving 26 months in 1986 for possession of a deadly weapon with intent to use it.

“But I’m one of the lucky ones,” he said.