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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.

Ronald Freeman
Ronald Freeman was a Los Angeles Black Panther and the brother of Roland Freeman. Interviews published around...
Ed Frey
Released
Ed Frey was an attorney and organizer of Santa Cruz's PeaceCamp2010 protest against restrictions on sleeping o...
F. Funes
F. Funes appears in the photograph caption of the Imperial Valley prisoners published in the July 1930 Labor D...
Stephen Funk
Released
Stephen Funk was arrested on April 1, 2003. Lance Corporal Stephen Funk was the first U.S. service member to...
Leo Gallagher
Leo Gallagher was an International Labor Defense attorney punished while defending six unemployed leaders pros...
Job Garcia
Released
Job Garcia is a photographer and doctoral candidate at Claremont Graduate University. Federal agents arrested...
Inez García
Released
Inez García was a young Latina woman who became a landmark figure in the women's self-defense movement after s...
Zurebu Gardner
Released
Zurebu Gardner was a Black community activist in Riverside, California, one of two men charged with the April...
Keith Gartenlaub
Released
Keith Preston Gartenlaub is a former Boeing engineer whom the FBI investigated after agents suspected that som...
Khatari Gaulden
Released
Khatari Gaulden was detained in 1967. Jeffrey "Khatari" Gaulden was a comrade of George Jackson in the San Qu...
Jack Gaveel
Released
Jack Gaveel was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Migrated to England in 1905; returned to the Netherlands in 1...
Bill Ghere
Released
William (Bill) Ghere was director of the Hollywood Group Theatre, presenting Clifford Odets plays Waiting for...
Chauncy Gilmore
Chauncy Gilmore was an Oakland Bay Area man whose prosecution became a Black Panther Party defense campaign. T...
David Lance Goines
Released
David Lance Goines was a Berkeley printer, artist and Free Speech Movement participant. He printed movement li...
John Golden
Released
John Golden was an IWW member from Eureka. John Golden received a one- to fourteen-year prison sentence, which...
Robert Goldstein
Released
Robert Goldstein was from Los Angeles, California. Robert Goldstein was sentenced to ten years in prison. He s...
Ralph Goodwin
Released
Ralph Goodwin was a member of the Republic of New Afrika. New Mexico authorities accused Goodwin, Charlie Hill...
Frank Gormlie
Released
Frank Gormlie founded the Ocean Beach People's Rag and organized in San Diego's Ocean Beach community. Followi...
Ernest Graham
Released
Ernest Graham was one of the 'San Quentin Two,' convicted along with Eugene Allen of killing a guard at the De...
John Grave
Released
John Grave was a laborer from Sacramento, California. John Grave was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Sacram...
Harry Gray
Released
Harry Gray was a leader of the Agricultural Workers Industrial Union in Sacramento, California. Harry Gray was...
Jack Green
Jack Green was captured in town with George Ford and C. Meyer during the Sonoma County anti-labor vigilante ra...
Emma Grondahl
Released
Emma Grondahl was a foreign-born Manhattan Beach, California resident targeted in a November 1953 McCarran-Wal...
Werner Grondahl
Released
Werner Grondahl was a foreign-born resident of Manhattan Beach, California targeted over alleged Communist aff...

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