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California
Political repression plays out state by state — shaped by local institutions, prosecutors, and movements for defense. These are the documented political prisoners and cases the census holds for California.
793Documented
19In custody
706Released
9Awaiting trial
Eras of repression in California
Where California’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.
1910s 164
1970s 123
1930s 97
1960s 85
2000s 72
1950s 66
Documented cases
793 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
Jack Weinberg
Released
Jack Weinberg was the Berkeley Free Speech Movement organizer whose October 1, 1964 arrest at a CORE table on...
Jeremy White
Released
Jeremy White was one of the eleven defendants in the San Diego County District Attorney's prosecution of anti-...
Charlotte Anita Whitney
Released
Charlotte Anita Whitney Wellesley-educated heiress (great-niece of Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field), so...
Julia Wilde
Released
Julia Wilde was arrested and clubbed leading a 1930 Oakland, California City Hall demonstration protesting pol...
Frank Wilkinson
Released
Frank Wilkinson was a Los Angeles public-housing official turned civil-liberties organizer who devoted his lif...
Josh Wolf
Released
Josh Wolf was a freelance video blogger and internet videoblogger who was jailed by a Federal district court o...
Dean Wyrzykowski
Awaiting Trial
Dean Wyrzykowski, 29, of San Francisco, California, is an animal-rights activist and one of four co-defendants...
Einosuke Yamaguchi
Released
Einosuke Yamaguchi, also recorded as Enosuke Yamaguchi and under the documented alias "Pauley", was a Japanese...
Karl Yoneda
Released
Karl Yoneda was a Japanese-American Communist and labor organizer active on the California waterfront and in t...
Wendy Yoshimura
Released
Wendy Yoshimura (born January 17, 1943, at the Manzanar incarceration camp, where her Japanese-American parent...
Peter Young
Released
Peter Young is an animal rights activist and the first person convicted of Animal Enterprise Terrorism. His ch...
Joyanna Zacher
Released
Joyanna "Sadie" Zacher is an environmentalist and a former Green Scare prisoner affiliated with the Earth Libe...
Michael ZinZun
Black Southern California community activist described by The Black Panther Vol. 14 no.4 (1975) as facing trum...
Wilhelm von Brincken
Released
Wilhelm von Brincken was a German diplomat and military attaché who in 1915 was assigned to the German Consula...
Eckhardt H. von Schack
Released
Eckhardt H. von Schack Baron Eckhardt H. von Schack was the German Vice-Consul in San Francisco. In October 19...
M
Mutope Duguma
In Custody
Mutope Duguma, identified by CDCR as James Daren Crawford, is a New Afrikan writer and participant in Californ...
J
Joka Heshima Jinsai
In Custody
Joka Heshima Jinsai, legally Shannon Lemar Denham, is an incarcerated writer and community organizer associate...
B
Barncho
A combatant in the Modoc War (1872–1873) — the only Indigenous fighters in U.S. history convicted as "war crim...
S
Slolux
A combatant in the Modoc War (1872–1873) — the only Indigenous fighters in U.S. history convicted as "war crim...
G
Gullit Eder Acevedo
Released
Gullit Eder Acevedo, known as Jaguar, is an educator and street-vendor advocate associated with the Justice 8....
A
Artie Adanandus
Released
Artie Adanandus was one of three young Black men who, on September 13, 1972, gave a ride to two white hitch-hi...
D
David Agranoff
Released
San Diego animal-liberation and Earth Liberation Front activist and author imprisoned during the Green Scare f...
A
Agustin Aguayo
Released
Agustin Aguayo was a US Army combat medic who sought release as a conscientious objector and refused a second...
C
Cesar Aguirre
Released
Cesar Aguirre, then 24 and from Elk Grove, California, was prosecuted for actions during the November 2-3, 201...
Institutions in California
Prisons, jails, and detention centers in California that appear in the census’s case files.
San Quentin State PrisonSan Quentin, California
150 cases
Federal Bureau of Prisons
59 cases
San Quentin Rehabilitation CenterSan Quentin, California
23 cases
Presidio StockadeSan Francisco, California
22 cases
Los Angeles County JailLos Angeles, California
21 cases
Metropolitan Detention Center, Los AngelesLos Angeles, California
14 cases
San Francisco County JailSan Francisco, California
13 cases
Alameda County JailOakland, California
10 cases