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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.
431Documented
6In custody
377Released
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
431 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
J
James Kerr
Released
James Kerr was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and marched in...
M
Mary Knowles
Released
Mary Knowles was a librarian employed by the Quaker Plymouth Monthly Meeting in Pennsylvania, indicted for con...
J
John Kolar
Released
John Kolar appears in the National Civil Liberties Bureau's March 1919 compilation "War-Time Prosecutions and...
W
Wasily Kriworuk
Released
Wasily Kriworuk was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed...
J
Joseph Kuzma
Released
Joseph Kuzma was one of the “Philadelphia Nine” defendants targeted as part of federal efforts to disrupt Comm...
N
Nich. G. La Casselle
Released
Nich. G. La Casselle was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-marti...
S
Sherman Labovitz
Released
Sherman Labovitz was a Communist Party defendant indicted and arrested in Philadelphia in 1953 under the Smith...
A
Arthur Landis
Released
Arthur Landis — SOA Watch line-crosser at Fort Benning, Georgia. Convicted of trespass on a military installat...
T
Thomas Lapsley
Released
Thomas Lapsley was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the...
J
John Laughery
Released
John Laughery was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and marched...
I
Israel Lazar
Released
Israel Lazar was a young revolutionary worker held (inmate No. 6977) in the Eastern State Penitentiary at Phil...
C
Christian Frank Lellig
Released
Christian Frank Lellig was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-mar...
H
Herman Lemke
Released
Herman Lemke, from eastern Pennsylvania, served in Atlanta Penitentiary from December 30, 1918, to June 10, 19...
P
Pete Lesko
Released
Pete Lesko was listed on the ILD's 1932 winter-relief roster of Western Pennsylvania class-war prisoners — coa...
P
Peter Lisle
Released
Peter Lisle was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the Wh...
D
David Lock
Released
David Lock was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and marched in...
N
Norm Lowry
Released
Lancaster, Pennsylvania peace activist who repeatedly blockaded the Armed Forces Recruiting Station on Queen S...
G
George Lucas
Released
George Lucas was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the W...
V
Violet Lynn
Released
Violet Lynn was arrested at a Manayunk strike meeting in Philadelphia in May 1932 and charged with 10 days for...
E
Elmer Maas
Released
Elmer Maas was a musician, music teacher, and Catholic peace activist who joined the Plowshares Eight at the G...
W
Will MacQueen
Released
Will MacQueen was a Black miner serving a year at the Blawnox Workhouse, one of the National Miners' Union str...
M
Matthew Ernest Macar
Released
Activist from Pennsylvania arrested January 18, 2023 during law enforcement raids on the Weelaunee forest in A...
A
Andrew Magers
Released
White anti-imperialist activist imprisoned at FCI Lewisburg in the 1980s on charges related to anti-imperialis...
W
Wilbur Maheney
Released
Wilbur Maheney was a Philadelphian who admitted past Communist Party membership but refused to name others bef...
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