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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.

D
David Bermudez
Released
On March 24, 2022 David Bermudez, 33, of Los Angeles, CA pled "no contest" to a charge of looting. Bermudez wa...
H
Harold Bird
Released
Harold Bird, an IWW member from Portola, received a four-year prison sentence, which he served in San Quentin...
B
Bobby Bishop
Black Marine defendant among the 'Camp Pendleton 14' charged after an alleged confrontation with a suspected K...
R
Ruth Bishop
Released
Ruth Bishop was a California teacher subpoenaed in the 1959 House Un-American Activities Committee probe of pu...
J
Judith Bissell
Released
White anti-imperialist activist arrested in November 1977 in Los Angeles as one of the PFOC/LA 5 on conspiracy...
F
Forrest Blade
Released
Forrest Blade was one of three young Black men who, on September 13, 1972, gave a ride to two white hitch-hike...
L
Linden Blake
Released
Linden Blake was a U.S. Army soldier and one of the four AWOL men who initiated the "Presidio 27" stockade sit...
R
R. J. Blame
Released
R. J. Blame was arrested in California and jailed while awaiting trial in the Sacramento IWW case. He was held...
B
Bouke Blom
Released
Bouke Blom was a Church of the Brethren conscientious objector from California imprisoned during World War I....
M
M. J. Bolotin
Released
M. J. Bolotin was a naturalized Molokan conscientious objector whose separate WWI case ended in a twelve-year...
M
Michael Bortin
Released
Michael Bortin was a Berkeley student in 1974 and a peripheral SLA recruit. He was named in the 2002 Californi...
R
Ray Boudreaux
Boudreaux, another former Black Panther swept into the reopened 1971 investigation, became publicly associated...
D
David Boyd
Released
David Boyd, an Iron Workers union member at the NASSCO shipyard, was one of the "NASSCO 3," three San Diego sh...
J
John Boyd
Released
John Boyd was one of four Black Civilian Conservation Corps youths of the Cohasset camp near Chico, California...
A
A. Bratland
Released
A. Bratland was imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison during the era of California's criminal-syndicalism pro...
A
Albin Bratland
Released
Albin Bratland, from Sacramento, received a four-year prison sentence, which he served in San Quentin from Sep...
H
Heshimu Lloyd Brice
Released
New Afrikan political prisoner held in Santa Clara County, California, listed as a North American political pr...
R
Ronald Bridgeforth
Released
Ronald Bridgeforth was a Black Panther Party member in San Francisco who spent more than forty years undergrou...
S
Samuel Bridges
Released
Samuel "Sam" Bridges was a Black former Stanford Hospital worker whose firing helped spark the April 1971 hosp...
L
Lehman Brightman
Leader of United Native Americans, Inc., charged with 'harboring' AIM leader Dennis Banks (the charges were la...
C
Cleveland Brooks
Cleveland Brooks was a San Francisco Panther prosecuted on explosives and firearms allegations in 1969. The Pa...
R
Robert Brooks
Released
Robert Brooks was convicted in the Eastern District of California for making false statements to a grand jury...
A
Archie Brown
Released
Archie Brown was an executive-board member of ILWU Local 10 in San Francisco and an open Communist who, in May...
R
Richard Brown
California Brown, a former Black Panther based in the Bay Area, became one of the most visible local defendan...

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