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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.

J
John J. Cornelison
Released
John J. Cornelison was imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison during the era of California's criminal-syndical...
J
Jim Cosner
Released
Jim Cosner was one of the activists arrested when Santa Cruz police sparked a melee during a May 22, 2002 anti...
T
Terry Cotton
Released
Terry Cotton was one of the earliest members of the Black Panther Party, in the same founding-era cohort as Hu...
T
Therese Coupez
Released
White anti-imperialist activist imprisoned in federal custody at FCI Pleasanton on resistance-related charges...
J
Jesse Cover
Released
Jesse Cover was a World War I conscientious objector who refused military service and was court-martialed and...
J
Joe Coya
Released
Joe Coya was arrested in February 1924 with sixteen other IWW members at a union conference in Sacramento, Cal...
J
John Craig
Released
John Craig, an IWW member from Sacramento, received a one- to fourteen-year prison sentence, which he served i...
J
Jack Crane
Released
Jack Crane was a CAWIU organizer, one of the eighteen indicted at Sacramento in July 1934 for criminal syndica...
A
Archie Crawford
Released
Archie Crawford was a nineteen-year-old sentenced to thirty days and denied medical care in the San Francisco...
C
Charles Crowley
Released
Charles Crowley, an IWW member from Portola, received a three-year prison sentence, which he served in San Que...
P
Patrick Croy
Released
Patrick Hooty Croy was a Shasta Indian sentenced to death for the 1978 shooting death of a Yreka, California p...
B
Benjamin Cruz
Released
Benjamin Cruz was a Guatemalan-born officer of the Furniture Workers Union in Los Angeles who in 1958 was serv...
C
Csaba John Csukas
Released
Csaba John Csukas, 39, of Daly City CA, naturalized US citizen who arrived as a refugee of the Bosnian war, wa...
E
Emma Cutler
Released
Emma Cutler, one of a mother and daughter, was sentenced to serve ninety days and pay a $500 fine at the Los A...
S
Sarah Cutler
Released
Sarah Cutler, one of a mother and daughter, was sentenced to serve ninety days and pay a $500 fine at the Los...
W
Waldemar Czapanski
Released
Waldemar Czapanski appears in the National Civil Liberties Bureau's March 1919 compilation "War-Time Prosecuti...
M
Michael Daniels
Released
Michael ('Mike') Daniels was a Greek-born co-editor of the left-wing Greek Tribune. In May 1959, though mental...
L
Lonnie Darden
Released
Lonnie Darden was a member of the Black Panther Party in Oakland. In December 1974 he was among the Party memb...
E
Ed Dawe
Released
Ed Dawe, an IWW member from Maryville, received a four-year prison sentence, which he served in San Quentin fr...
M
Manuel Delgado
Released
Mexican-American youth and one of the twelve defendants convicted of murder or assault in the January 1943 Sle...
E
Ethel Dell
Released
Ethel Dell was one of six young workers, who drew an extra fifty days for "contempt of court", who leapt the r...
K
Kamile Dincsoy
Released
Kamile Dincsoy, 48, Riverside Historic Courthouse green-handprint defendant, July 30 2022. Failed to appear fo...
R
Ricky Dodd
Released
Ricky Dodd was a U.S. Army soldier and one of the "Presidio 27" — the stockade prisoners at the Presidio of Sa...
M
Molly Dougherty
Black Panther Party supporter jailed for contempt (the maximum penalty) after refusing to testify in what she...

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