The FBI Files episode that was just on happened to be about the Atlanta prison riot in November, 1987. From show:
"Barring approval from the White House, the FBI must rely solely on civilian law enforcement."
"[The FBI] obtained presidential approval to deploy Delta Force in a civilian crisis"
New York Times article:
"At the request of Attorney General Edwin Meese 3d, the Pentagon sent a team of military experts in hostage rescue to Atlanta today to advise the Federal Bureau of Investigation on dealing with Cuban inmates holding 94 hostages at the Federal prison there.
Defense Department officials said about 100 of the experts, part of the Army's Special Operations Forces, had flown to Atlanta from Fort Bragg, N.C., where they are based. Among the units based at Fort Bragg is the top-secret Delta Force, which has been used in hostage-rescue missions overseas, but Federal officials would not confirm that members of Delta Force were at Atlanta."
www.nytimes.com/1987/11/26/us/military-hostage-specialists-sent-to-help-fbi-at-atlanta-prison.html