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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.
859Documented
24In custody
787Released
2Awaiting trial
Eras of repression in New York
Where New York’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.
1950s 137
1910s 137
1970s 87
1960s 87
1980s 81
1930s 65
Documented cases
859 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
M
Martin Popper
Released
Martin Popper was a New York attorney and former secretary of the National Lawyers Guild, found guilty in 1961...
P
Pauline Portugalo
Released
Pauline Portugalo was one of the named participants in the 1935 'March of the Cripples' — a sit-in by disabled...
C
Curtis Powell
Released
Dr. Curtis Powell was an Oxford-trained biochemist and Black Panther Party member indicted as one of the New Y...
S
Steven R. Pressman
Released
Steven R. Pressman was jailed for the March 1969 Stony Brook University library protest against university war...
Z
Zera Preston
Released
Zera Preston was a Delaware County, New York tenant farmer imprisoned after the August 7, 1845 killing of Unde...
W
William A. Price
Released
William A. Price was a New York Daily News reporter fired the day he refused to answer the Senate Internal Sec...
G
Gabriel Probes
Released
Gabriel Probes was arrested in August 1918 with co-defendants Jacob Abrams, Mollie Steimer, Samuel Lipman, Hym...
M
Matthew Rammelkamp
Released
Matthew Rammelkamp, age 16, pleaded guilty in 2001 to one count of arson conspiracy related to ELF-claimed fir...
M
Miguel Ramos
Released
Miguel Ramos, 26, with Dyshika McFadden and Tindal, used an aerosol can and open flame to set fire to an RPD v...
A
Abdul Haqq
Released
New Afrikan political prisoner first held at Rikers Island and later in New York State custody under NYSDOCS #...
J
John F. Randolph
Released
John F. Randolph, a Socialist from Auburn, New York, received a sentence of ten years, which was commuted on N...
P
Peter Randolph
Released
Peter Randolph, a cook from Auburn, New York, was sentenced to ten years in prison. He served in Atlanta Penit...
S
Stephen Rechkoff
Released
Stephen Rechkoff was a conscientious objector from New York imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for...
E
Enoch Reed
Defendant in the federal prosecutions following the October 1, 1851 Jerry Rescue in Syracuse, NY — when a mult...
J
Joan Reilly
Released
Age 20 at indictment; from Brightwaters, Long Island, a psychology/philosophy junior at Marymount College, Tar...
M
Matthias Reilly
Released
Matthias Reilly was one of the Fort Worth Five, five Irish-American men jailed in Texas in 1972 for refusing t...
R
Rosemary Reilly
Released
Age 22 at indictment; from Brightwaters, Long Island, graduate of the Academy of Saint Joseph who attended New...
W
William Reside
Released
William Reside was a Delaware County, New York Anti-Renter imprisoned after the August 7, 1845 killing of Unde...
R
Rose Resnikoff
Released
Rose Resnikoff was a young Communist arrested in New York City in 1930 for distributing anti-militarist leafle...
L
Luther F. Reynolds
Released
Luther F. Reynolds was a conscientious objector from New York imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed f...
R
Robert Rice
One of the "Harlem Six" — Black teenagers arrested in May 1964 and charged with the murder of clothing-store o...
J
James Ricks
Released
James Ricks is a peace activist from Ithaca, New York who participated in the October 2012 protest at Hancock...
J
John Riley
Released
Irish-born U.S. Army soldier who defected before the Mexican-American War and founded the San Patricio Battali...
J
Jose Rios
Released
Black / Latino liberation activist charged in the October 17-18, 1984 federal RICO indictment alongside the Ne...
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
184 cases
Manhattan House of Detention (the Tombs)New York, New York
17 cases
Sing Sing Correctional FacilityOssining, New York
14 cases
Attica Correctional FacilityAttica, New York
13 cases
Metropolitan Correctional CenterNew York, New York
11 cases
MDC BrooklynBrooklyn, New York
9 cases
Metropolitan Correctional Center, New YorkNew York, New York
9 cases
Blackwell's Island PenitentiaryNew York, New York
8 cases