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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.
P
Pierre Jans
Released
Pierre Jans, an IWW member from Los Angeles, received a four-year prison sentence, which he served in San Quen...
K
Katherine Jashinski
Released
Katherine Jashinski was a Texas Army National Guard member who publicly sought conscientious-objector status a...
K
Kareem Dewayne Jefferson
Released
On August 24, 2020 Kareem Dewayne Jefferson, 20, of Los Angeles, CA pled "no contest" to a charge of looting a...
Z
Zachary Jenson
Released
Zachary Jenson was an environmental activist prosecuted with Eric McDavid and Lauren Weiner in a Northern Cali...
S
Sam Jesky
Released
Sam Jesky appears in the National Civil Liberties Bureau's March 1919 compilation "War-Time Prosecutions and M...
G
Gabriela Brigitte Jimenez
Released
On March 24, 2022 Gabriela Brigitte Jimenez, 33, of Los Angeles, CA pled "no contest" to a charge of looting....
F
Francisco Jiminez
Released
Francisco Jiminez, a Ship Scalers Union member, was framed on a murder charge in the San Francisco Ship Scaler...
B
B. Johansen
Released
B. Johansen, an IWW member from Sacramento, received a four-year prison sentence, which he served in San Quent...
M
Marcel Johnson
Released
Marcel "Khali" Johnson, a Black Occupy Oakland organizer involved in food and blanket distribution at the Fran...
R
Rodney Johnson
Released
Rodney Johnson, a member of the Communist Workers Party, was one of the "NASSCO 3," three San Diego shipyard a...
R
Ryan Johnson
Released
Ryan Johnson was a US Army soldier who refused deployment to Iraq and sought refuge in Canada. He helped organ...
C
Curtis Jones Jr.
Released
Corporal Curtis Jones Jr. was one of the "Camp Pendleton 14," a group of Black Marines court-martialed after t...
T
Tahan K. Jones
Released
US Marine lance corporal who declared conscientious objection during the 1990-1991 Gulf War mobilization and r...
W
William Joozdeff
Released
William Joozdeff, an IWW member from Sacramento, received a four-year prison sentence, which he served in San...
J
John Juhn
Released
John Juhn was associated with the Los Angeles Korean-American paper Korean Independence and faced deportation...
M
Michael Justesen
Released
White anti-imperialist activist and former Weather Underground member arrested in November 1977 in Los Angeles...
L
Larry Justice
Released
Larry Justice was one of two Black men charged with the murder of San Quentin prison guard Leo Davis and put o...
E
Esther Karpiloff
Released
Esther Karpiloff was one of the staff of the communist children's summer camp at Yucaipa, California convicted...
G
Goldie Katz
Released
Goldie Katz was listed on the Labor Defender's class-war prisoner honor roll as serving 6 months in the Los An...
E
Elise Saramarielle Kelder
Released
Elise Saramarielle Kelder, 28, Riverside Historic Courthouse green-handprint defendant, July 30 2022.
R
Robert Kendrick
Black Panther Party member ('Sharief') beaten and arrested by LAPD in 1977 on charges The Black Panther Vol. 1...
J
Jeff Kibre
Released
Jeff Kibre led the rank-and-file reform movement in IATSE Local 37, the Hollywood studio-workers' union, again...
D
Diamond Kim
Released
Diamond Kim (Kim Kang) was the chief editor of the Los Angeles Korean Independence News, advocating a unified,...
D
Diamond Kimm
Released
Diamond Kimm was a Korean-born printer and editor of the newspaper Korean Independence, a U.S. resident since...
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