Alan Gross: American Citizen, Cuban Prisoner

Olivia Enos / August 02, 2011

A man with “big ideas.” That’s Alan Gross, a 62-year-old Maryland resident who had the best of intentions when he brought communication devices to the small Jewish community in Cuba. But those good intentions went horribly wrong when he was detained and placed in Villa Marista, the Cuban state prison, in 2009.

When Gross, a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), went to Cuba as a tourist, he had no idea that it would end in a 15-year prison sentence. Two years later, he remains in prison, and his lawyers say they’re running out of judicial appeals. (more…)