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Pennsylvania

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 Pennsylvania.

425Documented
6In custody
371Released
2Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Pennsylvania

Where Pennsylvania’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.

1700s 77 1910s 73 1930s 68 2020s 41 1950s 36 1970s 30

Documented cases

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

C
Clifford “Lumumba” Futch
Clifford “Lumumba” Futch was a Pennsylvania prisoner associated with Black Liberation Front prison organizing...
B
Ben Gardner
Released
Ben Gardner was an anti-fascist sentenced to a year at the Holmesburg workhouse for picketing the German consu...
M
Milton Bliss Gardner
Released
Milton Bliss Gardner was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-marti...
J
John Gaston
Released
John Gaston was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and marched in...
J
John Getman
Released
John Getman (also spelled Gettman) was a Pennsylvania German tailor of Milford Township, Bucks County, who liv...
A
Adam Getto
Released
Adam Getto was a National Miners' Union organizer clubbed and arrested at a march on the Ellsworth mine in Pen...
P
Philip Giambattista
Released
Philip Giambattista was listed on the ILD's 1932 winter-relief roster of Western Pennsylvania class-war prison...
L
Leon Gilbert
Released
Lieutenant Leon A. Gilbert was a Black officer of the segregated 24th Infantry Regiment court-martialed in Kor...
T
Thomas Gilpin
Thomas Gilpin, a Philadelphia merchant, inventor, and member of the American Philosophical Society, was one of...
L
L.A. Graber
Released
L.A. Graber was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for...
A
Albert Lowery Grabill
Released
Albert Lowery Grabill was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-mart...
A
Antonin Gualberti
Released
Antonin Gualberti, an IWW member and a Socialist from Scranton, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to three years in...
E
Eric Wildcat Hall
Eric Wildcat Hall is an Indigenous-rights activist sentenced to 35 to 75 years for his role in shipping arms t...
J
John Hamilton
Released
Colonel John Hamilton was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and...
D
Dean Hammer
Released
Dean Hammer was a Catholic Worker who joined the original Plowshares Eight at the King of Prussia GE plant in...
S
Stephen Harkey
Released
Stephen Harkey was a Jehovah's Witnesses conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War...
B
Bill Hartman
Released
Bill Hartman was a peace worker based in Philadelphia and active in the Atlantic Life Community network of Cat...
A
Alfred Hassler
Released
Alfred Hassler was an editor and leader of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. His opposition to wartime conscri...
F
Frederick Heaney
Released
Frederick Heaney (also spelled Heany or Hainly) was a Pennsylvania German tailor from Milford Township, Bucks...
R
Rolando Montae Hearn
Rolando "Montae" Hearn coordinated Philadelphia Panther breakfast work and was jailed in a robbery prosecution...
A
Aden E. Heckman
Released
Aden E. Heckman was a Church of the Brethren conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World...
A
Adolph Heller
Released
Adolph Heller was director of the Workers School in Philadelphia who, in April 1941, was convicted in a 'bomb...
M
Maurice Hess
Released
Maurice Hess, a young Dunkard (Old Order German Baptist Brethren) schoolteacher from Pennsylvania, refused mil...
P
Patrick Hester
Patrick Hester was convicted of the October 17, 1868 murder of mining superintendent Alexander Rea near Centra...

Institutions in Pennsylvania

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

Allegheny County WorkhouseBlawnox, Pennsylvania
23 cases
Walnut Street JailPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
20 cases
Philadelphia GaolPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
18 cases
Butler County PrisonButler, Pennsylvania
13 cases
United States Penitentiary, LewisburgLewisburg, Pennsylvania
13 cases
FCI AllenwoodWhite Deer, Pennsylvania
12 cases
SCI DallasDallas, Pennsylvania
12 cases
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas / SCI Pennsylvania state prisonsPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
9 cases