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Colorado

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 Colorado.

90Documented
3In custody
82Released

Eras of repression in Colorado

Where Colorado’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.

1950s 18 1910s 11 1980s 9 1970s 9 1930s 8 2020s 7

Documented cases

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

Milka Sablich
Released
Milka Sablich — known as "Flaming Milka" — was a young picket leader in the 1927–28 Colorado coal miners' stri...
Ben Salmon
Released
Ben Salmon became one of the most visible U.S. conscientious objectors of World War I, arguing from Catholic p...
Daniel Sicken
Released
Daniel Sicken is described as an anti-nuclear activist whose direct action centered on U.S. intercontinental b...
Jeanette Vizguerra
Jeanette Vizguerra was named one of worlds 100 most influential people by Time Magazine.
Lauren R Watson
Released
Lauren R. Watson organized Denver’s Black Panther chapter. His prosecution for resisting and fleeing police wa...
D
David Michael Ansberry
In Custody
David Michael Ansberry, age 66, a Colorado counterculture-community veteran, placed a radio-controlled explosi...
F
Felix Missael Alva
Released
On May 30, 2020 a Denver detective working downtown saw a white Jeep stop nearby with a male passenger produci...
F
Floyd Bartlett
Released
Floyd Bartlett was one of sixteen workers arrested in the Denver "Bloody Tuesday" relief strike of 1934.
P
Pearl Bartlett
Released
Pearl Bartlett was one of sixteen workers arrested in the Denver "Bloody Tuesday" relief strike of 1934.
A
Anna Bary
Released
Anna Bary was a Denver Communist and Mexican-rights activist arrested under the Smith Act in August 1954 durin...
A
Arthur Bary
Released
Arthur Bary, the chairman of the Communist Party of Colorado, was among the Colorado Communists jailed for con...
I
Irving Blau
Released
Irving Blau was among the Colorado Communists jailed for contempt in Denver in 1948 for refusing to cooperate...
P
Patricia Blau
Released
Patricia Blau was a Denver Communist arrested under the Smith Act in August 1954 during the McCarthy era. She...
S
Samuel R. Caldwell
Released
Samuel R. Caldwell was the first person in the United States arrested and convicted for selling marijuana unde...
G
Gene Corish
Released
Gene Corish was convicted in the Denver "Bloody Tuesday" FERA relief-strike riot case of October 1934 — charge...
T
Theresa Cusimano
Released
Theresa Cusimano is a Denver, Colorado-based Catholic Worker and longtime peace activist who has been arrested...
R
Raymond Dennis
Released
Raymond Dennis was among the Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers Union leaders convicted in Denver in December 1959 o...
I
Irving Dichter
Released
Irving Dichter was one of the Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers Union leaders convicted in Denver in December 1959...
G
Graham Dolan
Released
Graham Dolan was the publicity director of the Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers Union, one of the defendants in th...
C
Corey Donahue
Released
Corey Donahue was one of the most-arrested figures of the entire Occupy movement, an Occupy Denver organizer c...
J
James H. Durkin
Released
James H. Durkin, a former leader of the Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers Union, was one of those convicted in Denv...
A
Arthur Evans
Released
Arthur Evans was a Denver, Colorado Quaker physician and lifelong pacifist who refused all or part of his fede...
G
Gary Garrison
Released
Gary Garrison was a teacher at Escuela Tlatelolco, the Chicano alternative school founded by the Crusade for J...
R
Ripley Gibson
Released
Ripley Gibson was one of sixteen workers arrested in the Denver "Bloody Tuesday" relief strike of 1934.

Institutions in Colorado

Prisons, jails, and detention centers in Colorado that appear in the census’s case files.

ADX FlorenceFlorence, Colorado
3 cases
FDC EnglewoodLittleton, Colorado
3 cases
Colorado State PenitentiaryCañon City, Colorado
3 cases
Jefferson County Jail
3 cases
Mount San Rafael Hospital / Trinidad jail (militia custody)Trinidad, Colorado
1 case
Denver County JailDenver, Colorado
1 case
Colorado Department of Corrections
1 case
Limon Correctional FacilityLimon, Colorado
1 case