Deportations Due; Lompoc Braces for Cuban Unrest

Lompoc Federal Penitentiary authorities are taking extra security precautions in preparation for an expected announcement today that some inmates may be deported to Cuba, a decision that led to violent prison takeovers last year in Louisiana and Georgia.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has determined that 59 of the 210 Cubans currently being held at Lompoc will either be deported to Cuba or incarcerated indefinitely and INS officials will inform the inmates today, Lompoc Warden Richard Rison said Wednesday.

“We are gearing up and preparing for problems,” Rison said. “They have demonstrated they can be violent. We are taking it very seriously and making sure we’ll have control of the situation.”

About 60 Cubans at Lompoc already have been released, and 80 more will be released in the next few months to halfway houses in the Midwest or to family members, primarily in Miami or on the East Coast, Rison said. The others are still awaiting a decision from the INS.

In November, about 240 Cuban detainees were transferred to Lompoc after Cuban inmates took 138 hostages and seized control of federal prisons in Atlanta and Oakdale, La. The riots began after the State Department announced an agreement with Cuba that called for returning the detainees to their homeland.

A lengthy agreement was reached to end the Oakdale takeover that, in part, absolved the Cubans from liability for damage to the prisons or hostages. The deal also guaranteed a “full, fair and equitable” review for prisoners with no family members or sponsors.

About 1,500 Cubans who had been held in prisons throughout the country already have been released and another 900 will be released in the next few months, said Duke Austin, an INS spokesman in Washington.

But the INS has determined that about 1,400--including the 59 at Lompoc--should not be released. These prisoners can appeal the INS decision to the Department of Justice and if their appeals fail they either will be deported to Cuba or held in an American prison pending further review.

The INS based its decision on FBI reviews of the inmates’ criminal records and their behavior while in prison, Rison said. Although the Cubans were, in part, absolved for the riots, the actions of some prisoners can be held against them, Rison said.

“There were some crimes committed that were completely unnecessary and that kind of thing can be looked at,” Rison said.

“For example, while the negotiations were progressing, some inmates went off on their own and committed assaults, and other were involved in burning down a commissary and other kinds of willful destruction,” he said.

The Cuban detainees 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 Lompoc, most of the Cubans will be transferred to other federal prisons during the next week to make room for federal defendants awaiting trial and sentencing.