ATLANTA — Off McDonough Boulevard in southeast Atlanta in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the city's residential life is the troubled federal penitentiary and the memory of the longest prison standoff in United States history.
This November will mark 35 years since the 11-day uprising. There were three key elements that sparked the revolt: President Jimmy Carter, an alleged violation of civil rights, and the detainees and their demands to stay.
Open arms and open hearts
The Cuban refugee crisis started long before Georgia-born President Jimmy Carter would take his seat in the Oval Office. However, in 1980, his words and leadership would open the floodgates for Cubans to seek refuge in a country roughly 90 miles away.
"We as a nation had always had our arms open to receiving refugees in accordance with American law. We'll continue to provide an open heart and open arms to refugees seeking freedom from communist domination and from economic deprivation," Carter said in part in May 1980.
Carter's promise came after Fidel Castro, the island nation's president, authorized emigration. Castro was letting his people leave and the U.S. was granting asylum to whoever made the journey to its shores.
After Carter emphasized his Open Arms Policy, thousands of Cubans would partake in the 'freedom flotilla leaving the island's Mariel Harbor. In just a few months into 1980, more than 125,000 Cubans, nicknamed Mariels or marielitos, would arrive on the coasts of South Florida, according to the University of Miami's Cuban Heritage Collection research.
Florida quickly got full - so the U.S. government had another solution.
Indefinite detention
The refugee crisis would spill into Ronald Reagan's presidency in 1981.
"When they needed a place to put the Mariel Cubans, it started out as the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. They kind of got moved in, bit by bit," Former DeKalb County magistrate judge Gary LeShaw said.
LeShaw was an attorney with Georgia Legal Aid at the time and, with a legal team, represented the detainees.
"Some were in prison in Cuba, but we didn't know what they were in for. It could have been criminal behavior, it might have been political issues. The method for tallying who was who, as I said, was not very good," LeShaw explained.
About 1,500 Cuban detainees were sent to Atlanta's federal pen as a temporary solution, but the men didn't know if - or when - they would be released.
"They hadn't been convicted of anything and couldn't be sent back to Cuba," LeShaw said.
Their legal limbo sparked his involvement.
"They were first there in 1982, we were in litigation. We were in constant litigation with the government," LeShaw said. "The primary issue was you shouldn't hold people in indefinite detention."
Then, a list would turn the tides of the refugee crisis.
"There was an agreement with the Cuban government that they would take back a certain number of detainees," LeShaw said, adding there were more than 2,000 names on the list - but no one knew who was on it.
In November of 1987, the government announced it would deport about 2,500 Cubans detained in federal penitentiaries.
People, detained for years, heard that some would be going back to the country they escaped from.
Longest prison standoff in U.S. history
The government's announcement came on November 20, 1987. Twenty-four hours later, around 1,200 detainees in Oakdale, Louisiana revolted, making national headlines.
Two days later, the detainees in Atlanta caught wind of their efforts.
“When they heard that there was an agreement to send them back to Cuba, that’s when the riots started," LeShaw said.
Days before Thanksgiving in 1987, the detainees took 100 staffers hostage, including the warden. They told the American prisoners to leave.
"There was one dangerous American prisoner, who was considered dangerous, at least by the authorities, and he had, I think, been serving a life term. He was known as somebody who caused trouble for detainees, (they) didn't want him to do anything," LeShaw said. "They basically bound him up, threw him out the back gate, which was open for anybody who wanted to go out, and virtually all of the American prisoners, the regular prisoners, just once the riot started, they voluntarily left."
The Cubans locked down the prison to see if they could cut a deal. Their organized efforts caught national attention and they worked to use it to their advantage.
“I was there the first couple of nights with the FBI hostage negotiators," LeShaw said. "One of the detainees was killed by the guards shooting on the rooftops and until they got him out, it was hard to make any progress with the Cubans.”
Making headlines during the holidays
One hundred prison staffers would spend Thanksgiving locked inside the Atlanta federal penitentiary.
Reports from the time period show the hostages were fed turkey and ultimately treated well as the standoff stretched into a week. Photos show the detainees would periodically post messages from the rooftop.
"We are not communist. We do not accept deportation to Cuba," one message reads.
Elsewhere were signs of the riot. Items burned outside one of the buildings, graffiti along the walls, and parts of the pen were destroyed.
Photos detail how the rooftop became their podium, as detainees would communicate with media across the street. As December grew near, archival footage shows the men created a makeshift Christmas tree and hung holiday decor - evidence that they were in it for the long haul.
LeShaw, who had been communicating with some of the detainees, asked them for a gift: to release a hostage on his paralegal's birthday. He said it would be a sign of good faith.
On Dec. 1, negotiations took a turn.
"And for her birthday they released one," he said. "And towards the end, they called me back in again."
Oakdale's standoff lasted eight days and came to a close after the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Miami Agustín Román, a Cuban and heavily regarded figure in the community, negotiated with the detainees. He would later make an appearance in Atlanta.
"The bishop had to kind of show up to put the final agreement - to kind of tell the detainees to resolve the riot," LeShaw said.
Voting for freedom
Two days after releasing a hostage, the U.S. government reached an agreement.
"Those that got approved at the first process with immigration detention officers were then scheduled for release," LeShaw said. "Those who didn't were entitled to a review by Justice Department attorneys. They could overturn the immigration officers."
It was a prospect brought to the detainees. Being in the U.S., they handled it democratically.
"They took a vote," LeShaw said. "So everybody had to wait until the votes were in."
By Dec. 3, the detainees agreed to the terms and the nation's longest prison standoff came to an end.
LeShaw said the detainees were finally getting their due process. With more than 3,500 detainees between Oakdale and Atlanta's prisons and other detainees scattered around jails, LeShaw emphasized though a resolution was set - the matter would not be quick to resolve.
The review process went through 1991 and LeShaw was there to help guide many of the detainees through it.
"The ones who were released were supposed to be left alone as long as they obey the law and didn't get into trouble," LeShaw said.
A majority of the detainees were released and were able to stay, according to LeShaw. The uprising cost about $35 million in damages and also prompted security changes in the nation's prison system.
However, LeShaw said the real lesson to be learned has yet to be realized.
"It's 35 years later, like half of my lifetime and the whole lifetime (for) a lot of people," he said. "It also shows the problems with indefinite detention, and that's come up in other areas too - and I think that's a lesson to be learned, and I'm not sure it has been."
Watch a playlist of archive footage from 11Alive's reporting below: