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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
John G. Weiler
Released
John G. Weiler was a member of the Communist Labor Party convicted under California's Criminal Syndicalism Act...
J
John Wells
Released
John Wells appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’ 1968 military-prison lists of conscie...
F
Fred West
Fred West was a San Francisco representative of the California State Federation of Labor arrested with William...
L
Larry West
Larry West was a California prisoner who collaborated with Ruchell Magee on legal research. The June 29, 1971...
C
Chuck Whatford
Released
Chuck Whatford was a member of the Catholic Worker Farm in Sheepranch, California. On December 28, 1982, he wa...
G
Glen White
Released
Glen was a Black Marine, the only one of the 'Camp Pendleton 14' acquitted of the charges arising from Black M...
H
H. C. White
Released
H. C. White was an Industrial Workers of the World member who served a sentence at San Quentin, according to S...
J
Jack Whyte
Jack Whyte, also recorded as Jack White, was an Industrial Workers of the World activist imprisoned during the...
M
Matthew Whyte
Released
Matthew Whyte was charged with attempted arson in 2001 alongside Peter Schnell in Capitola, California. Senten...
E
Earl Wilkenson
Released
Earl Wilkenson was a Black worker jailed on a vagrancy charge in Lincoln Heights jail, Los Angeles. In a lette...
D
Danny Wilkins
Released
Danny Wilkins, then 19 and from Safford, Arizona, was a U.S. Army soldier and one of the "Presidio 27" — the s...
G
G. Williams
G. Williams is individually identified in the California defense report as convicted at Eureka and sentenced t...
C
Carolyn Jennifer Ann Williams
Carolyn Jennifer Ann Williams was among six people arrested in a Richmond, California house raid on February21...
H
Harry Williams
Released
Harry Williams was an IWW member from Scrotia. Harry Williams received a one- to fourteen-year prison sentence...
L
Louis Randolph Williams
Louis Randolph Williams was an Oakland Black Panther and Vietnam veteran who worked as an armaments officer an...
N
Naomi Williams
Released
Naomi Williams was a nineteen-year-old Black Panther Party member who volunteered with the People’s Free Medic...
R
Robert Williams
Robert Williams was a member of the Southern California Black Panther Party, prosecuted alongside Romaine Fitz...
J
John Wills
Released
John Wills was a British Greenpeace participant jailed in California following the 2001 Vandenberg anti-missil...
H
Hans Willwater
Hans Willwater is individually listed in the INS civilian custody roster as confined at Sharp Park Detention C...
C
Connie Wilson
Released
Connie Wilson was a 19-year-old high-school student from San Francisco’s Hunters Point neighborhood who was pr...
W
Winters
Released
Winters was a Cannery and Agricultural Workers' Industrial Union organizer convicted in a Riverside County, Ca...
E
Edward Wolf
Edward Wolf was seized after tear gas was used in a raid on his house during the Sonoma County anti-labor vigi...
R
Robert Woods
Released
Robert Woods was an IWW member from Sacramento. Robert Woods received a three-year prison sentence, which he s...
G
George Woolf
George Woolf, identified as president of the San Francisco Ship Scalers Union, was arrested during the unionâ€...

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