Conflicting Ruling on Refugee Inmate

A refugee from the 1980 Mariel boatlift--when Fidel Castro sent 125,000 Cubans to Florida--cannot be held in federal prison indefinitely, a federal appeals court has ruled.

“In our society, no person may be imprisoned for many years without prospect of termination,” said the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of a Cuban who has spent more than eight years in various federal prisons since completing a sentence on state charges in Florida.

The 2-1 ruling Thursday conflicts with decisions by at least three other federal appeals courts allowing the continued imprisonment of Cubans whom the U.S. government considers to be dangerous, although they have been charged with no federal crimes. A lawyer in the case said there may be 3,000 to 5,000 such prisoners nationwide.

Some of those sent to Florida by Castro in 1980 were prisoners or mental patients, but their number remains in dispute.

U.S. authorities released nearly all of the Cubans, but later revoked the freedom of many who committed new crimes. Unable to deport them to Cuba, the government put them into federal prisons.