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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
Recent dashboard entries from California
The newest published events and reporting located in California, updated automatically from the live dashboard.
Other
Whistleblower alleges FBI targeted Los Angeles anti-ICE protesters
Prosecution
Charges dropped against five Stanford students over pro-Palestine protest
Prosecution
Judge dismisses all charges against the Stud Alley 18 arrested during San Francisco Pride weekend
Protest
Two injured at Teamsters protest outside Amazon warehouse; sheriff says motorcyclist intentionally struck crowd
Other
Five invited reporters held at gunpoint by Vandenberg Space Force Base security
Other
Photojournalist Steven Berumen shoved by federal officers while covering an LA immigration protest
Prosecution
Anti-ICE protester accused of pouring lighter fluid on CHP car is sentenced to prison
Prosecution
Westlake man sentenced for anti-ICE protest actions
Documented cases
1,533 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
Pancho Ramos Stierle
Released
Pancho Ramos Stierle, a Mexican-born nonviolence organizer affiliated with Casa de Paz / the Canticle Farm com...
Ernest Ramsay
Released
Ernest Ramsay was an organizer and patrolman for the Marine Firemen's Union in San Francisco. Police arrested...
Cynthia Raygoza
Cynthia Raygoza is a Riverside, California resident prosecuted following an August 28, 2025 encounter involvin...
Paul Alwyn Redd Jr.
Released
Paul Alwyn Redd Jr. was an Oakland-born jailhouse lawyer, writer and prison organizer associated with the Shor...
Paul Redd
Paul Redd was detained after the Central Avenue raid. The Party newspaper reports that he was confined in New...
Christina Reid
Released
Christina Reid, an electronics engineer from California, was prosecuted in the Boston federal case involving a...
Joseph Remiro
Released
Joseph Michael Remiro, a Vietnam War veteran and Symbionese Liberation Army member, was arrested and booked in...
Manuel Reyes
Released
Manuel was a Mexican-American youth and one of twelve defendants convicted in the January 1943 Sleepy Lagoon m...
Jasmine Richards
Released
Jasmine Richards is widely described in U.S. reporting as a local organizer associated with Black Lives Matter...
Al Richmond
Released
Al Richmond was the editor of the San Francisco Daily People's World, the West Coast Communist newspaper. He w...
Otto Richter
Released
Otto Richter was a coppersmith from Bremen, Germany, and a member of the German Young Communist League. Nazi s...
Ron Ridenour
Released
Ron Ridenour was a Los Angeles Free Press journalist and supporter of striking Chicana garment workers. He was...
Anna Robbins
Released
Anna Robbins was among seven workers arrested after a demonstration demanding work at Oakland City Hall on Dec...
Wade E. Roberts
Released
Wade E. Roberts was a U.S. Army private who left his West German post in February 1987 and obtained Soviet asy...
J.R. Robertson
Released
J.R. Robertson was an officer of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union prosecuted with Harry Bridges...
Aida McCray Robinson
Released
Aida McCray Robinson was a 20-year-old student at Golden Gate College when she fell in love with Allen Sims wh...
George Robinson
Released
George Robinson was a Black Panther Party member arrested outside Oakland’s Lamp Post Bar and Restaurant on De...
John Rodger
John Rodger was a maritime unionist prosecuted in the 1935 Modesto dynamite case during the tanker strike. Con...
John Rodgers
John was individually named in the caption identifying the eight Modesto maritime defendants in this union his...
Luis V. Rodriguez
Released
Luis V. Rodriguez was an Apache/Chicano indigenous rights activist convicted in California of the murder of tw...
Nelson Rodriguez
Released
Nelson Rodriguez was one of Los Siete de la Raza, a group of young Latino men from the Mission District of San...
Hugh Nanton Romney Jr.
Released
Hugh is a counterculture icon and clown-activist. Arrested in the September 1981 Diablo Canyon blockade and he...
Zoe Rosenberg
Released
Zoe Rosenberg is an American animal rights activist, animal sanctuary founder, and a leading public face of th...
Carl Ross
Released
Carl Ross was a Communist arrested in August 1953 and tried in San Francisco for sheltering Smith Act fugitive...
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