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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

Documented cases

1,533 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.

J
Jack Beavert
Released
Jack Beavert was an IWW lumber worker from Humboldt County, California, imprisoned at San Quentin under the st...
P
Pete Beazley
Pete Beazley was one of ten IWW witnesses arrested after their testimony at the Casdorf–Firey trial. The June...
M
Margaret Bechtel
Margaret Bechtel is individually listed in the INS civilian custody roster as confined at Sharp Park Detention...
H
Hans Beck
Released
Hans Beck was a conscientious objector from California imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refu...
K
Konrad Beck
Konrad Beck is individually listed in the INS civilian custody roster as confined at Sharp Park Detention Camp...
I
Irving Bell
Irving Bell was a California Cotton Mills strike picket in Oakland. The August 17, 1936 Western Worker, page 1...
C
Calhoun Benham
Released
Calhoun Benham was detained on November 18, 1861. Marshall reproduces George D. Prentice's account naming Cal...
C
C. F. Bentley
C. F. Bentley is individually identified in the California defense report as convicted at Stockton and sentenc...
I
Isadore Berkowitz
Released
Isadore Berkowitz worked at the children's summer camp near Yucaipa, California. He was arrested with six wome...
D
David Bermudez
Released
David Bermudez was a Los Angeles resident who pleaded no contest to looting on March 24, 2022. On March 24, 2...
E
Esmeralda Bernal
Esmeralda Bernal was a teaching assistant at San Jose State College, identified in contemporary reporting as 2...
G
Garland Berry
Garland "Poncho" Berry was a Black San Quentin prisoner killed during racial violence in 1977. A prisoner stat...
G
G. Bertini
G. Bertini was arrested on February 7, 1918. Vecellio records Bertini’s February 7, 1918 arrest at Fort Bragg...
T
Thomas Bertino
Thomas Bertino was prosecuted for perjury in connection with petitions to place the Communist Party on the ele...
S
Sue Bethel
Sue Bethel was a Progressive Labor Party member whose arrest in January 1969 was reported by The Militant. Th...
F
Fred Billingslea
Fred Billingslea was held at San Quentin, where he died in his cell on February 25, 1970, according to Bill Br...
D
Donald Bingham
Released
Donald Bingham was one of the first workers arrested during the Vacaville agricultural strike. A January 17, 1...
A
Abe Bird
Abe Bird is individually named among workers arrested at a Communist election meeting in San Francisco’s Jeffe...
H
Harold Bird
Released
Harold Bird was an IWW member from Portola. Harold Bird received a four-year prison sentence, which he served...
B
Bobby Bishop
Released
Bobby Bishop was one of the Camp Pendleton 14, a group of Black Marines arrested after a November 13, 1976 con...
J
Jack Bishop
Jack Bishop was beaten unconscious and dragged into a car during the San Francisco anti-labor raids described...
R
Ruth Bishop
Released
Ruth Bishop was a California teacher subpoenaed in the 1959 House Un-American Activities Committee probe of pu...
F
Forrest Blade
Released
Forrest Blade was one of three young Black men who, on September 13, 1972, gave a ride to two white hitch-hike...
R
Robert J. Blaine
Robert J. Blaine was an Industrial Workers of the World member held in Sacramento County Jail while awaiting t...

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