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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.
N
Njeri Quddus
Released
RNA citizen from Camden NJ; wife of Offogga Quddus. One of three women among the RNA-11 (with Tamu Sana and Ai...
O
Offogga Quddus
Released
Born Wayne Maurice James of Camden NJ. RNA citizen present at the Lewis Street raid. Convicted; served prison...
O
Otto B. Reichelt
Released
Otto B. Reichelt, from New Jersey, received "a severe sentence" despite Department of Justice "skepticism as t...
I
Isaiah Rowley
Isaiah Rowley was a Jersey City Panther held in Hudson County Jail before trial over an alleged police-station...
J
Jack Rubenstein
Released
Jack Rubenstein, a young picket-line leader of the 1926 Passaic textile strike, was arrested repeatedly and be...
B
Bert Salwen
Released
Bert Salwen was a Communist Party candidate ruled off the New Jersey ballot in 1954 under the new Communist Co...
P
Peter Schellbach
Released
Peter Schellbach, of Jersey City, New Jersey, began serving a prison sentence on June 14, 1918. He was given a...
N
Nicholas Schillaci
Released
Nicholas Schillaci was one of the 1926 Passaic, New Jersey textile strikers prosecuted in the "bomb plot" fram...
A
Abraham Schwartz
Released
Abraham Schwartz was a conscientious objector from New Jersey imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed f...
A
Alexander Scott
Released
Alexander Scott was the editor of the Passaic Weekly Issue, a socialist newspaper that covered the 1913 Paters...
M
Martha Shemeley
Released
Martha Lee Shemeley was a Camden social worker, a former diocesan teacher, a Seton Hall psychology graduate an...
W
William Sikora
Released
William Sikora was one of the 1926 Passaic, New Jersey textile strikers prosecuted in the "bomb plot" frame-up...
J
Justin D. Spry
Released
On May 31, 2020 following protests in Trenton, NJ, Justin Spry, 21, was seen on video with Killian Melecio and...
J
J. Minor Sullivan
Released
Dr. J. Minor Sullivan III was a Black Trenton physician convicted of seven counts of perjury in February 1956...
J
J. Minor Sullivan 3d
Released
J. Minor Sullivan 3d was a witness for the Trenton Six defense who was then hit with perjury warrants. Support...
A
A. O. Taichin
Released
A. O. Taichin, a Socialist from Bayonne, New Jersey, was convicted along with Theo Fedotoft of "seditious rema...
J
James H. Thorpe Jr.
Released
Trenton Six defendant. Acquitted on retrial 1951.
James Henry Thorpe Jr. was one of the "Trenton Six," six Bl...
S
Sarah Tosi
Released
Sarah Tosi, from Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, was twenty at the Camden 28 indictment. A 1969 graduate of Immaculate...
A
Anthony Valentino
Released
Anthony Valentino was a United Electrical Workers figure convicted of falsely signing a Taft-Hartley non-Commu...
B
Basil Wahib
Released
Basil Wahib was one of thirteen dye-workers arrested in the 1933 Paterson, New Jersey silk-and-dye strike and...
L
Leopold Weinstein
Released
Leopold Weinstein was a conscientious objector from New Jersey imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed...
B
Bobby Lee Williams
Released
Bobby Lee Williams was a young Black man who, during the Plainfield, New Jersey rebellion, was shot and seriou...
H
Horace Wilson
Released
Trenton Six defendant. Acquitted on retrial 1951.
A
Adolf Wisnefsky
Released
Adolf Wisnefsky was one of the 1926 Passaic, New Jersey textile strikers prosecuted in the "bomb plot" frame-u...
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