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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.

B
Benjamin Saltzman
Released
Benjamin Saltzman was a foreign-born resident arrested for deportation under the McCarran-Walter Act in the Co...
V
Victor A. Sanchez-Santa
Released
In Manhattan, NY, Victor A. Sanchez-Santa, 19, was charged with one count of arson for attempting to set a pol...
J
Jo Ann Santiago
Released
Jo Ann Santiago, born in Canada in 1922 and brought to the United States at age six, was the wife of a Puerto...
J
John Michael Santiago
Released
During 2020 protests in Rochester, NY over the killing of Daniel Prude, John Michael Santiago, 24, threw firew...
J
Jose Santiago
Released
Jose Santiago was a Puerto Rican patriot and former Communist, a leader of the Provisional Organizing Committe...
J
John Santo
John Santo was a leading organizer of the CIO's Transport Workers Union in New York and an immigrant from the...
S
Sathajhan Sarachandran
Released
Sahilal Sarachandran, Nadarasa Yogarasa, Sathajhan Sarachandran, and Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam were involved...
L
Ludwig Sardruk
Released
Ludwig Sardruk was a conscientious objector from New York imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for r...
L
Lena Davis Scherer
Released
Lena Davis Scherer, who came from Russia in 1913 and was the wife of labor organizer Marcel Scherer, was arres...
J
Jack Schneider
Released
Jack Schneider was a leader of the International Fur & Leather Workers Union targeted for deportation during t...
H
Howard Schoenfeld
Released
Howard Schoenfeld was an American fiction writer, editor, and pacifist who resisted conscription before the Un...
J
Joshua Schwartz
Released
Joshua Schwartz was an animal-rights activist arrested with Benjamin Persky and Jennifer Greenberg for damagin...
M
Mark Scibilia-Carver
Released
Mark Scibilia-Carver is a peace activist from Trumansburg, New York who participated in the October 2012 prote...
O
Omar Seku
Released
Omar Seku was one of the Attica Brothers — the prisoners the state of New York prosecuted after the September...
A
Albert Shadowitz
Released
Albert Shadowitz was an engineer who refused to answer Senator McCarthy's questions on the advice of Albert Ei...
L
Lucia Shapiro
Released
Lucia Shapiro was one of 26 demonstrators arrested at City Hall Park in New York on May 3, 1960 for refusing t...
K
Kyle Shaw
Released
Kyle Shaw, age 19, bombed a Starbucks on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in 2009 and was planning a second bo...
H
Henry Shepard
Released
Henry Shepard was a Black Communist candidate for lieutenant-governor of New York jailed five days in 1932 for...
B
Bernard Silber
Released
Bernard Silber, a New York unionist, was indicted for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer a House comm...
E
Emanuel Silver
Released
Emanuel Silver was a conscientious objector from New York imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for r...
M
Marcia Silver
Released
Marcia Silver was a striker with Local 1250 of the Department Store Employees Union in the December 1935 strik...
I
Israel Simon
Released
Israel Simon was a needle-trades organizer framed on an assault charge during union organizing and given an in...
M
Marcus Singer
Released
Marcus Singer was a Cornell University zoologist indicted for contempt of Congress — at the same time as John...
J
Jerome Singleton
A 30-year-old Black student in New York City accused of slashing an undercover 'decoy' policeman; The Black Pa...

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