Skip to content
Learn More → State by State

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.

L
Larry Ferlazzo
Larry Ferlazzo was a Bay Area anti-nuclear activist who participated in the March 11, 1981 blood-pouring actio...
J
Juan Fernandez
Released
Juan Fernandez was a member of La Casa de Carnalismo, a Chicano community organization in East Los Angeles tha...
M
Manuel Fernandez Rodriguez
Released
Manuel Fernandez Rodriguez was one of five Spanish sailors who deserted Franco's navy and sought asylum in the...
S
Sarah Ferrell
Sarah Ferrell protested U.S. support for Israel by blocking the Golden Gate Bridge in April 2024. A jury convi...
R
Renaye Fewless
Released
Renaye Fewless was a Los Angeles Catholic Worker intern who participated in a Rampart Police Station protest d...
F
Fred Firestone
Released
Fred Firestone was a Los Angeles labor organizer and secretary of the city's International Labor Defense branc...
F
Fisher
Fisher was identified by surname only among twenty-two people arrested for picketing the Adohr Dairy during th...
J
John Fisher
Released
John Fisher was a Cannery and Agricultural Workers’ Industrial Union organizer arrested in the Sacramento crim...
M
Maurice Fishman
Maurice Fishman was one of the named defendants arrested in the September14, 1931 San Francisco City Hall unem...
A
Alexandria Ty Fite
Released
Alexandria Ty Fite, Riverside Historic Courthouse green-handprint defendant, July 30 2022.
C
Christopher Flores
Christopher Flores was a California prisoner represented in the March 20, 2012 public petition to the United N...
L
Luis Yboy Flores
Luis Yboy Flores was detained at Mesa Verde Detention Facility in California and participated in a hunger stri...
M
Manuel Flores
Manuel Flores is identified in the San Pedro dispatch dated July 5, 1934 as a picket jailed on an accusation o...
A
A. G. Ford
Released
A. G. Ford was one of the Sacramento defendants prosecuted for criminal syndicalism in 1934-1935 during the ca...
D
Diane Ford
Diane Ford was a California antiwar activist associated with Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In her first-pe...
P
Phil Fortman
Phil Fortman was a California prisoner represented in the March 20, 2012 public petition to the United Nations...
D
D. Fradkin
Released
D. Fradkin was one of the workers arrested at the Los Angeles May Day demonstration of 1 May 1930 — on charges...
M
Minnie Fradkin
Minnie Fradkin is individually named in Page 3's November 11 Los Angeles report among those arrested in the pr...
F
F. Franklin
Released
F. Franklin was an IWW member. F. Franklin received a five-year sentence, which he served in San Quentin from...
G
Greg Franklin
Released
Greg Franklin was identified by The Black Panther as a Black Panther Party member whom Los Angeles police beat...
H
Harold Freeman
Harold Freeman was individually named among San Diego Black Panthers arrested on July 16, 1969 while going to...
L
L. V. French
Released
L. V. French was from Eureka. L. V. French received a three-year prison sentence for having an IWW membership...
T
Todd Friend III
Released
Todd Friend III was a member of Orange Grove Friends Meeting and one of the Pasadena Three, residents of a Qua...
A
Alfred Fugelvic
Released
Alfred Fugelvic was listed on the Labor Defender's class-war prisoner honor roll as serving 6 months in the Lo...

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