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Minnesota

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 Minnesota.

278Documented
7In custody
215Released
15Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Minnesota

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

1910s 52 2020s 50 1940s 44 1930s 33 1970s 25 2010s 19

Documented cases

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

Annette Klapstein
Released
Annette Marie Klapstein is a retired attorney and climate activist who worked for the Puyallup Tribe. On Octob...
Francis Kroncke
Released
Francis was a member of the Little Falls raiding team (with Michael Therriault) in the July 10, 1970 Minnesota...
Karl Kuehn
Released
Karl Kuehn was a member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) or Minneapolis Teamsters Local 544 prosecuted in...
Winona LaDuke
Released
Winona LaDuke is an Ojibwe economist, environmentalist, and writer from the White Earth Nation, a co-founder o...
Leo Laukki
Released
Leo Laukki was a university professor and editor of the IWW's Finnish language newspaper from Smithville, Minn...
Isabel Lopez
Released
Isabel "Isa" Lopez is a Minnesota poet, artist, water protector and community organizer. Federal agents arrest...
Sander Maki
Released
Sander Maki was a conscientious objector imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusing military...
Polly H. Mann
Released
Polly H. Mann was born in Lonoke, Arkansas, and co-founded Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) with Marianne...
Michael "Rattler" Markus
Released
Michael "Rattler" Markus is water protector and Oglala Lakota from Pine Ridge, SD. Rattler's Lakota name is Ma...
Philip Masonovich
Released
Philip Masonovich was a Montenegrin immigrant iron miner caught up in the 1916 Mesaba Range strike in Minnesot...
CeCe McDonald
Released
CeCe McDonald was arrested on June 5, 2011. Black transgender woman from Minneapolis who became an internatio...
Marian Mollin
Released
Marian Mollin was a peace activist who later became a historian. She described imprisonment for Honeywell Proj...
Heidi Nybroten
Released
Heidi Nybroten, of Minneapolis, Greenpeace 28 - September 2019 Houston Ship Channel bridge rappel.
Don Olson
Released
Don was a member of the Winona raiding team (with Peter Simmons and Brad Beneke) arrested in the July 10, 1970...
Dion Ortiz
Released
Dion Ortiz, a member of San Felipe Pueblo, was prosecuted for civil disorder arising from the October 27, 2016...
Erik Oseland
Released
Erik Oseland was a member of the RNC Welcoming Committee, an anarchist/anti-authoritarian collective that orga...
Edward Palmquist
Released
Edward was a member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) or Minneapolis Teamsters Local 544 prosecuted in the...
Emily Heather Phillips
Released
Emily Heather Phillips was arrested across the street from Cities Church in Saint Paul on Easter Sunday, April...
Kelly Postal
Released
Kelly Postal was secretary-treasurer of Minneapolis Local 544-CIO. The union supported truck drivers and organ...
Natasha Rakotz
Awaiting Trial
Natasha Rakotz is one of the Minnesota 15, a group federally indicted in June 2026 over organizing and demonst...
Cortez Aaron Rice
Released
Cortez Aaron Rice was charged November 24, 2021 in Minneapolis with felony harassment / retaliation against a...
Dylan Shakespeare Robinson
Released
Dylan Shakespeare Robinson was prosecuted for helping set fire to the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Pr...
Igal Roodenko
Released
Igal Roodenko was involved in leftist politics and pacifism, spending time during World War II in a camp for c...
Charlie Rowoldt
Released
Charles Rowoldt was a German-born Minneapolis worker and former secretary of the Hennepin County Workers Allia...

Institutions in Minnesota

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

FCI SandstoneSandstone, Minnesota
21 cases
FCI WasecaWaseca, Minnesota
9 cases
Ramsey County District CourtSt. Paul, Minnesota
7 cases
U.S. District Court, District of MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota
5 cases
White Earth Tribal Court
3 cases
Ramsey County JailSt. Paul, Minnesota
2 cases
Hennepin County JailMinneapolis, Minnesota
1 case
FPC DuluthDuluth, Minnesota
1 case