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New York

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 York.

2,077Documented
25In custody
1,084Released
7Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in New York

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

1930s 715 1940s 176 1970s 173 1910s 169 1920s 165 1950s 161

Documented cases

2,077 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.

Donald Noble
Released
Donald Noble was incarcerated at Attica in 1971 and helped establish the Attica Liberation Faction. The prison...
Paul Novick
Released
Paul Novick was the longtime editor of the Yiddish-language daily Morning Freiheit. On August 25, 1953 the fed...
Edward O'Connor
Released
Edward O'Connor was a Delaware County, New York 'Calico Indian' convicted alongside John Van Steenburgh of the...
Harvey O'Connor
Released
Harvey O'Connor (March 29, 1897 – August 29, 1987) was a labor journalist and author, born in Minneapolis and...
Ciaron O'Reilly
Released
Ciaron O’Reilly is an Australian peace campaigner and long-time Catholic Worker organizer whose activism inclu...
Joseph F. O'Rourke
Released
Joseph F. O'Rourke was one of the D.C. Nine, who entered Dow Chemical’s Washington offices on March 22, 1969 a...
Baba Odinga
Released
Baba Odinga was a Black Panther Party member indicted in the April 2, 1969 New York Panther 21 conspiracy case...
Sekou Odinga
Released
Sekou Mgobogi Abdullah Odinga, born Nathanial Burns, helped found the Bronx chapter of the Black Panther Party...
Bill Ofenloch
Released
Bill Ofenloch is a New York Catholic peace activist whose work with the Catholic Peace Fellowship and Catholic...
Carl Ohm
Released
Carl Ohm, also printed as Karl Ohm, legally entered the United States in April 1929. He was an International L...
Therese Patricia Okoumou
Released
Therese Patricia Okoumou, scaled the Statue of Liberty pedestal on July 4, 2018 in protest of the Trump admini...
Ed Oquendo
Released
Edward Oquendo was a young Black anti-war activist, a member of Blacks Against Negative Dying and of Youth Aga...
Roque Orobio Lobon
Released
Roque Luis Orobio Lobon, also identified as Roque Orobio Tobon and known as Mello or Tachuela, was a Panamania...
Chi Ossé
Chi Ossé was arrested at a September 24, 2026 sit-in near United Nations headquarters in New York City opposin...
Juan Otero
Released
Juan Otero (Juan Otero Jr.) was a South Bronx Puerto Rican community activist and construction-trades anti-dis...
Carl Paivio
Released
Carl Paivio was born Karl Einar Päiviö at Töysä in Finland. Carl Paivio was a Finnish-American editor, lecture...
Alejandro Palacios Rengifo
Released
Alejandro Palacios Rengifo, known as El Gato or Yimi, was abducted and forcibly recruited into the FARC at age...
Michael Palumbo
Released
Michael Palumbo was a New York anti-fascist who attended a Khaki Shirts rally in Astoria on July 14, 1933 with...
Frank Panopoulos
Released
Frank Panopoulos has worked on peace and social justice issues since 1979. During the 1980s he lived in the Co...
Mary Patten
Released
Mary Patten is an artist and activist associated with the Madame Binh Graphics Collective. She was imprisoned...
William L. Patterson
Released
William L. Patterson was the Black executive secretary of the Civil Rights Congress and author of the petition...
Colette Pean
Released
Colette Pean was one of the New York 8+, a group of Black activists arrested in coordinated FBI and New York C...
James Peck
Released
James "Jim" Peck was a New York-born pacifist, civil rights activist, and journalist. As a WWII conscientious...
Margo Pelletier
Released
Margo Pelletier was an artist and filmmaker imprisoned at Rikers Island following the Kennedy Airport anti-apa...

Institutions in New York

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

Ellis Island Immigration StationNew York, New York
215 cases
Fort LafayetteNew York, New York
201 cases
Manhattan House of Detention (the Tombs)New York, New York
21 cases
Attica Correctional FacilityAttica, New York
20 cases
Sing Sing Correctional FacilityOssining, New York
15 cases
Ellis IslandNew York, New York
15 cases
Metropolitan Correctional Center, New YorkNew York, New York
13 cases
Metropolitan Correctional CenterNew York, New York
10 cases