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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
John McRae
Released
John McRae was an IWW member from Eureka. John McRae received a three-year prison sentence for having an IWW m...
F
Francisco Medina
Released
Francisco was a leader in the 1933 cotton strike arrested on October 10, the day of the Pixley killings.
The...
E
Enrique Medina Fernandez
Released
Enrique Medina Fernandez was one of five Spanish sailors who deserted a Franco naval vessel and crossed into t...
J
Julian Renee Mejia
Released
Julian Renee Mejia was arrested on July 16, 2020.
On September 10, 2020 Julian Renee Mejia, 35, of Los Angele...
P
Phillip Mellman
Released
Phillip Mellman was an IWW member from Sacramento. Phillip Mellman received a four-year prison sentence, which...
R
Ruby Mendoza
Ruby Mendoza is named in Page 5 among five Fish Cannery Workers' Union members arrested during a San Pedro-are...
W
Willie Mendoza
Willie Mendoza was an East Los Angeles College student and chairman of La Vida Nueva, identified in contempora...
F
Fred Mermon
Released
Fred Mermon was one of the railway shopmen convicted in the frame-up that grew out of the 1922 nationwide shop...
C
Claude Merritt
Released
Claude Merritt was imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison during the era of California's criminal-syndicalism...
J
John Metsäranta
Released
John Metsäranta was a janitor at the San Francisco Finnish workers hall during the historic 1934 West Coast Wa...
B
Brian Thomas Mettenbrink
Released
Brian Thomas Mettenbrink is an Anonymous hacktivist who was charged as part of a group who conducted a DDoS at...
R
Robert Middaugh
Released
Robert Middaugh was an anarchist who served a three-year sentence stemming from a clash with police during the...
M
Mike Miksich
Mike Miksich signed a prison letter from San Quentin published in Labor Defender in February 1931. The magazin...
A
Alvin Miller
Alvin Miller was a Black prisoner killed in the Soledad prison exercise-yard shootings on January 13, 1970. Co...
G
Gene Miller
Gene Miller was an Eureka lumber striker held amid the 1935 Sawmill and Timber Workers Union campaign. The Aug...
O
Oscar Miller
Oscar Miller was identified as a San Diego Black Panther arrested while walking down the street with a sawed-o...
A
Arthur Milton
Arthur Milton is identified in Page 3, as the sixth worker arrested after the June 1 Los Angeles unemployed re...
L
Lloyd Mims
Lloyd Mims had taken over distribution of the Panther newspaper shortly before the Central Avenue raid. Contem...
L
Luther Mincy
Released
Luther Mincy was a Cannery and Agricultural Workers’ Industrial Union organizer prosecuted in two California l...
A
Arthur Mini
Released
Arthur Mini was a CAWIU organizer, one of the eighteen indicted at Sacramento in July 1934 for criminal syndic...
R
Robert W. Minton
Released
Robert W. Minton was an IWW member from Sacramento. Robert W. Minton received a five-year prison sentence, whi...
M
Mike Miskich
Released
Mike Miskich was a self-identified class-war prisoner writing to the ILD from San Quentin Prison, California i...
E
Edo Mita
Released
Edo Mita was a Japanese-born Los Angeles resident and husband of wartime-incarceration survivor Chiye Mori. Th...
H
Henry Mitchell
Henry Mitchell was a New York Black Panther Party member reportedly detained by FBI and local police after arr...
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