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New Jersey

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 New Jersey.

148Documented
0In custody
133Released
1Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in New Jersey

Where New Jersey’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.

1930s 25 1910s 24 1970s 23 1950s 16 1960s 14 2000s 12

Documented cases

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

A
Alex Kostamacha
Released
Alex Kostamacha was one of the 1926 Passaic, New Jersey textile strikers prosecuted in the "bomb plot" frame-u...
P
Paul Kovac
Released
Paul Kovac was one of the 1926 Passaic, New Jersey textile strikers prosecuted in the "bomb plot" frame-up tha...
J
John Levering
Released
John Levering was a conscientious objector from New Jersey imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for...
B
Benjamin Lieb
Released
Benjamin Lieb, a forty-six-year-old veteran organizer and father of three, was one of five National Textile Wo...
J
Joseph Lypsevitch
Released
Joseph Lypsevitch was one of nine Newark, New Jersey workers arrested at unemployment meetings in February 193...
J
John MacKenzie
Released
Trenton Six defendant. Acquitted on retrial 1951.
F
Francis Mel Madden
Released
Francis Melvin "Mel" Madden, a Boston native, was ordained a Franciscan priest in 1965 and founded Liberty Vil...
G
Gail Madden
Released
Gail Madden was a co-defendant convicted of the first-degree murder of Plainfield, New Jersey police officer J...
C
Charles McCray
Released
Charles McCray was one of two co-defendants tried with the poet LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) for unlawful posses...
J
John McKenzie
Released
John McKenzie was one of the "Trenton Six," six Black men arrested in Trenton, New Jersey in 1948 and charged...
K
Killian F. Melecio
Released
On May 31, 2020 following protests in Trenton, NJ, Killian Melecio, Kadeem Dockery, and Justin Spry were seen...
G
George Merritt Jr.
Released
George Merritt Jr. was convicted of the first-degree murder of Plainfield, New Jersey police officer John V. G...
T
Theodore Narusheff
Released
Theodore Narusheff was a union organizer convicted of atrocious assault in February 1951 — five years after th...
A
Alexander Norbe
Released
Alexander Norbe was a conscientious objector from New Jersey imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed fo...
W
William Norman
Released
William Norman was a Communist Party figure indicted under the Smith Act in 1951 with Fred Fine and James Jack...
C
Charles Nusser
Released
Charles Nusser was the New Jersey Communist Party secretary arrested in early 1951 under a 1918 state anti-sub...
C
Charles Ohlsen
Released
Charles Ohlsen, of Newark, New Jersey, began serving a prison sentence on August 8, 1918.
P
Paul Oznik
Released
Paul Oznik was one of the 1926 Passaic, New Jersey textile strikers prosecuted in the "bomb plot" frame-up tha...
J
John Pado
Released
John Pado was one of nine Newark, New Jersey workers arrested at unemployment meetings in February 1930 and in...
V
Victor Perez
Victor Perez was a Jersey City Panther held in Hudson County Jail before trial over an alleged police-station...
M
Maggie Pitocco
Released
Maggie Pitocco, a seventeen-year-old picket in the 1926 Passaic textile strike, was sentenced to six months on...
T
Tony Pochno
Released
Tony Pochno was one of the 1926 Passaic, New Jersey textile strikers prosecuted in the "bomb plot" frame-up th...
B
Benedict Prieth
Released
Benedict Prieth, a newspaper editor from New Jersey, was convicted under the Espionage Act.
M
Michael Prush
Released
Michael Prush was a conscientious objector from New Jersey imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for...

Institutions in New Jersey

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

New Jersey State PrisonTrenton, New Jersey
15 cases
Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for WomenClinton, New Jersey
14 cases
Essex County JailNewark, New Jersey
9 cases
New Jersey State Prison, TrentonTrenton, New Jersey
6 cases
Passaic County JailPaterson, New Jersey
5 cases
U.S. District Court, District of New JerseyTrenton, New Jersey
3 cases
FCI Fort DixFort Dix, New Jersey
2 cases
Bergen County JailHackensack, New Jersey
2 cases