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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.
E
Earl King
Released
Earl King was a Marine Firemen's union official convicted of conspiracy in the 1936-37 Point Lobos case over a...
K
Keith King
Keith King was an East Palo Alto Black Liberation Front member. Pamoja Venceremos reported his May 4, 1971 arr...
R
Renard King
Renard King was jailed with his brother Keith in a 1971 East Palo Alto case supported by the Black Liberation...
G
George Kiosz
Released
George Kiosz was listed on the Labor Defender's class-war prisoner honor roll as serving 1 year in the Los Ang...
F
Fred Kirkwood
Released
Fred Kirkwood was a CAWIU organizer, one of the eighteen indicted at Sacramento in July 1934 for criminal synd...
K
Keith Kjoller
Released
Keith Kjoller is linked to the same 1992 California action as Peter Lumsdaine, in which activists targeted a d...
F
Frank Klassen
Released
Frank Klassen was a Mennonite conscientious objector from California imprisoned during World War I. Court-mart...
T
T. O. Kleiberg
Released
T. O. Kleiberg, an IWW member from Los Angeles, received a four-year prison sentence, which he served in San Q...
T
Tom Knappe
Released
Tom Knappe was a German Greenpeace participant jailed in California following the 2001 Vandenberg anti-missile...
W
Walter Kohrs
Released
Walter Kohrs, an IWW member from Los Angeles, received a four-year prison sentence, which he served in San Que...
K
Katya Komisaruk
Released
Anti-nuclear activist who, on June 2, 1987, single-handedly destroyed a NAVSTAR satellite ground-control compu...
S
Shirley Kremen
Released
Shirley Kremen was a student tried in San Francisco for sheltering Smith Act fugitives Robert Thompson and Sid...
R
R. Kuilmen
Released
R. Kuilmen, from Eureka, received a four-year prison sentence, which he served in San Quentin from April 10, 1...
E
Eva Kutas
Activist serving a two-year term for conspiracy and harboring an escaped federal prisoner, listed by Amnesty I...
B
Bert Kyler
Released
Bert Kyler, from Sacramento, received a three-year prison sentence for giving testimony in court on behalf of...
J
James Lacy
Released
James Lacy was arrested in a hall raid, beaten, and held three days before release without charge in the San F...
C
Carl Lambert
Released
Carl Lambert was among the California Communist Party leaders arrested in 1951 under the Smith Act and held on...
C
Charles L. Lambert
Released
Charles L. Lambert, from Sacramento, California, was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chicago, sentenced to...
M
Matthew Lamont
Matthew Lamont is a California anarchist who, according to the Anarchist Black Cross (2003), was imprisoned ov...
W
W. H. Langley
Released
W. H. Langley was arrested at San Pedro, California in May 1932 on suspicion of criminal syndicalism.
D
Donnell Lankford
Released
Donnell Lankford was a member of the Black Panther Party arrested in the April 6, 1968 gun battle between Pant...
C
Chris Laury
Released
Chris Laury was a member of the Black Liberation Front in East Palo Alto, California, arrested on May 7, 1971...
L
Louis Lavine
Released
Louis Lavine was an IWW member arrested near Hornbrook, California in early 1917. A March 1917 IWW account tit...
G
Gary Lawton
Released
Gary Lawton was a Black community activist in Riverside, California, one of two men charged with the April 197...
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