Smoke Canisters Fired at Sign-Waving Inmates : Immigration: Cuban detainees climb to roof of Alabama prison, display appeals for help. They had earlier faked a jailbreak.

Prison guards late Tuesday fired about a dozen canisters of a smoke agent onto the roof of a cellblock building where rebellious inmates were waving hand-lettered banners appealing for help in their weeklong takeover of part of an Alabama prison.

It was the first violent outbreak in the uprising at the Federal Correctional Institution by Cuban inmates, who have been holding 10 hostages since last Wednesday.

The projectiles were hurled soon after 15 to 20 inmates emerged onto the roof for the first time since the standoff began and displayed signs asking for media intervention and protesting the fact that they were being denied food.

“The hostages are dying due to lack of food,” one banner read. “We haven’t had food for a week,” another said.

The projectiles scattered the prisoners momentarily, but, as the clouds of smoke dissipated, they dashed to the edge of the building and jeered the guards below.

Prison authorities confirmed that no food had been delivered to the cellblock but said the prisoners apparently had a supply of food hoarded from commissary stocks.

Tuesday night’s incident followed what a Bureau of Prisons spokesman said had been the “first extended face-to-face” negotiating session between the holdout prisoners and FBI and prison officials.

The meeting occurred after what prison officials called a feigned attempt by the prisoners to break out of the cellblock Monday night.

Roger Scott, the prison warden, disclosed the incident Tuesday morning, telling reporters that an unspecified number of inmates were “seen moving quickly and gathering at the front entrance to the living unit.”

Scott said the group “then immediately began yelling and making a lot of noise, apparently to test the level of response that would follow.”

Officials said that as many as half of the 300 federal, local and state law enforcement officials on duty at the prison swung into a state of high alert--both outside the sprawling facility and inside, near the cellblock that contains 121 Cubans, the 10 hostages and 18 American inmates.

Tuesday evening’s confrontation occurred after prisoners on the roof repeatedly hoisted a huge hand-lettered sign reading: “Please media, justice, freedom or death.” Other signs also were displayed, several referring to the lack of food.

Prison officials circled overhead in several helicopters, and some landed near the building.

Heavily armed officers waited outside the prison. Others, armed only with batons and wearing protective helmets, flak jackets and knee and elbow pads, were stationed inside, officials said. As of 9:30 p.m., all the inmates were reported to be off the roof.

During briefings Tuesday, officials sought to play down the Monday night incident.

Scott said the detainees “appeared to feign” the escape attempt, adding, “Whatever the reason, the attempt was aborted . . . .”

The incident spawned speculation that the inmates were trying to rattle the authorities, who have repeatedly vowed to be patient.

Some of the prison officials and inmates here had been involved in previous prison takeovers by Cuban inmates at facilities in Atlanta and Oakdale, La., in November, 1987. Those uprisings followed announcements that some detainees would be sent back to Cuba, the same message that triggered the trouble here.

Eleven Atlanta inmates were later transferred here, as were 20 from Oakdale.

Nationwide, Cuban detainees number about 2,500 and are locked up because they have committed crimes in this country and thus have been designated by the Immigration and Naturalization Service as “excludable.” The immigrants arrived in 1980 as part of 125,000 Cubans who were boat-lifted from Mariel.

The takeover here began a day before 32 Cubans were scheduled to be deported to their homeland. Talladega is known as the last stop for Cubans being deported because their appeals have been exhausted.

There have been no reported injuries since the first day of the takeover, when one prison worker was hurt slightly. The hostages include seven prison employees and three from INS. Three hostages are women.