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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.
J. Tony Serra
Released
J. Tony Serra is a legendary San Francisco criminal defense attorney known for representing Black Panthers, th...
Sanyika Shakur
Released
Sanyika Shakur, born Kody Dejohn Scott, was an author and former Los Angeles gang member. He adopted New Afrik...
Naim Sharif
Naim Sharif was one of the Los Angeles Eight, detained in U.S. maximum-security prisons for several weeks in 1...
Michel Shehadeh
Released
Michel Shehadeh was arrested and imprisoned with the Los Angeles Eight in January 1987. The government's effor...
George E. Shibley
Released
George E. Shibley was a California labor and civil-liberties attorney who, after a jury acquitted him of conte...
Henry Silva
Released
Henry Silva was a San Francisco ship scaler and one of the maritime workers prosecuted in the Modesto dynamite...
Lillian Silverman
Released
Lillian Silverman took part in unemployed-workers' demonstrations in Los Angeles in 1930. Police beat her unco...
Richard A. Sisney
Released
Richard A. Sisney was one of 22 Greenpeace activists federally charged after the September 12, 2019 blockade o...
Carl Sklar
Released
Carl Sklar was from Los Angeles. Carl Sklar received a three- to thirty-three-year prison sentence for violati...
Darryl Skrabak
Released
Darryl Skrabak was an antiwar activist, musician and later bicycle advocate imprisoned for refusing the Vietna...
Paul Skyhorse
Released
Paul Skyhorse was arrested on October 17, 1974.
American Indian Movement (AIM) activist framed alongside Rich...
Bernard Smith
Released
Bernard Smith received a jail sentence after a Los Angeles Panther-related arrest.
Billy Dean Smith
Released
Billy Dean Smith was a Black U.S. Army private whose court-martial for "fragging" — the grenade killing of two...
Sara Jane Olson
Released
Kathleen Ann Soliah, who lived under the name Sara Jane Olson for more than two decades, was a member of the S...
John Souza
Released
John Souza was a maritime unionist prosecuted in the 1935 Modesto dynamite case during the tanker strike. Cont...
Johnny Spain
Released
Larry Michael Spain, known as Johnny Spain, was the only one of the San Quentin Six convicted of murder for th...
Frank Spector
Released
Frank Spector was a Russian Jewish immigrant who arrived in 1913. International Labor Defense district organiz...
William Spencer
Released
William Spencer was detained on November 13, 1976.
Sergeant William Spencer, of High Point, North Carolina, w...
Myron Sprague
Released
Myron Sprague was a laborer and a delegate of Local 573 of the Industrial Workers of the World's Construction...
Loretta Stack
Released
Loretta Starvus Stack was among the California Communist Party leaders indicted under the Smith Act in 1951 an...
Willie Stafford
Willie Stafford was arrested after the Central Avenue raid. The Party paper spells his surname Safford; the co...
Reuel Stanfield
Released
Reuel Stanfield was one of the maritime workers prosecuted in the Modesto dynamite case during the 1935 tanker...
Sidney Stein
Released
Sidney Steinberg, prosecuted as Sidney Stein, was a Communist Party organizer who became a fugitive after his...
Henry Steinberg
Released
Henry Steinberg was the legislative director of the Los Angeles Communist Party. He was jailed under the Smith...
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