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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.

1,533Documented
32In custody
958Released
13Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in California

Where California’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.

1930s 361 1970s 206 1960s 205 1910s 176 2020s 125 1980s 90

Documented cases

1,533 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.

Arthur G. Melville
Released
Arthur G. Melville was one of the D.C. Nine, who entered Dow Chemical’s Washington offices on March 22, 1969 a...
C. Meyer
C. Meyer was captured in town with George Ford and Jack Green during the Sonoma County anti-labor vigilante ra...
Gabriel Meyers
Released
Gabriel Meyers is a protestor who — in the aftermath of the BART police killing of Oscar Grant in Oakland — sp...
Norman Mini
Released
Norman Mini was a Sacramento native and former West Point cadet who worked with the Cannery and Agricultural W...
Bella Mintz
Released
Bella Mintz was one of the staff of the communist children's summer camp at Yucaipa, California convicted in 1...
Bernon F. Mitchell
In Exile
Bernon F. Mitchell was a National Security Agency cryptologist who defected with William Hamilton Martin in 19...
John Mitigli
Released
John Mitigli was arrested and clubbed leading a 1930 Oakland, California City Hall demonstration protesting po...
Kevin Mitnick
Released
Kevin Mitnick was charged and convicted of crimes described in this record as having no political connection.
Richard Mohawk
Released
Richard Mohawk was arrested on October 17, 1974. American Indian Movement (AIM) activist framed with Paul Sky...
José Manuel Mojica
Released
Jose Manuel Mojica joined a June 7, 2025 demonstration against immigration raids in Paramount, California. Fed...
Carlos Montes
Released
Carlos Montes was a Brown Beret organizer and editor of La Vida Nueva at East Los Angeles College. He was pros...
Rena Mooney
Released
Rena Mooney was a San Francisco music teacher, socialist activist, and the wife of Tom Mooney. She was indicte...
Tom Mooney
Released
Thomas Mooney was a San Francisco labor organizer and IWW militant — son of an Irish coal-miner Knights of Lab...
Renee Moore
Renee Moore, known as Peaches, was a Panther at Central Avenue headquarters during the raid. Contemporary repo...
Luis Francisco Mora
Released
Luis Francisco Mora was one of eleven anti-fascist counter-protesters prosecuted after confrontations with sup...
Steve Morgan
Released
Stephen Morgan was a British freelance photographer jailed while documenting Greenpeace’s 2001 Vandenberg anti...
Catherine Morris
Released
Catherine Morris is a longtime Los Angeles Catholic Worker — celebrating 50 years at the LA Catholic Worker in...
Leslie Mullin
Released
Leslie Mullin was a white anti-imperialist activist arrested in November 1977 in Los Angeles as one of the PFO...
Julie Mungai
Julie Mungai was one of the Los Angeles Eight, detained in U.S. maximum-security prisons for several weeks in...
Mike Murhiti
Mike Murhiti is named in Page 3's individually labeled group photograph among seven people arrested at the Oak...
Steve Murphy
Released
Steven James Murphy was charged in 2009 with attempted arson, possession of an unregistered destructive device...
Samir Nazareth
Released
Samir Nazareth was a Indian Greenpeace participant jailed in California following the 2001 Vandenberg anti-mis...
Jerry Newson
Released
Jerry Newson was a nineteen-year-old Oakland shoeshine worker arrested on October 25, 1949 and sentenced to de...
Huey P. Newton
Released
Huey P. Newton was the co-founder, with Bobby Seale, of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in October 19...

Institutions in California

Prisons, jails, and detention centers in California that appear in the census’s case files.

San Quentin State PrisonSan Quentin, California
171 cases
Federal Bureau of Prisons
60 cases
Sharp Park Detention CampSharp Park, California
33 cases
Presidio StockadeSan Francisco, California
28 cases
Los Angeles County JailLos Angeles, California
26 cases
Folsom State PrisonFolsom, California
22 cases
San Quentin Rehabilitation CenterSan Quentin, California
16 cases
Metropolitan Detention Center, Los AngelesLos Angeles, California
15 cases