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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.
C
Charles Starocarski
Released
Charles Starocarski was arrested at a Manayunk strike meeting in Philadelphia in May 1932 and charged with 10...
E
Edward A. Starr
Released
Edward A. Starr was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed...
E
Ernest A. Stephens
Released
Ernest A. Stephens served a prison sentence from July 30, 1918, to June 21, 1920, in McNeil Island Penitentiar...
J
James Stewart
Released
James Stewart was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the...
B
Burdtt W. Stine
Released
Burdtt W. Stine was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed...
L
Lynn Dyan Stone
Released
Lynn Dyan Stone joined the Hatfield’s Ferry smokestack protest against the Bush administration’s energy policy...
S
Stanton Story
Released
Stanton Story was a Black man from Pittsburgh who spent nearly five decades in Pennsylvania prisons after bein...
A
Ayoub Tabri
Released
Ayoub Tabri, 24, of Arlington, VA was charged for the arson of a Pennsylvania State Police SUV during civil un...
A
Arthur Taylor
Released
Arthur Taylor was a United Mine Workers of America organizer in the District 2 campaign that swept Somerset Co...
B
Ben Thomas
Released
Ben Thomas, a Philadelphia machinist and Workers (Communist) Party representative, was one of the leaders arre...
M
Mark R. Thomas
Released
Mark R. Thomas, from Vandergraft, Pennsylvania, was a member of the IBSA and objected to military service on r...
L
Leo Thompson
Released
Leo Thompson was a young strike leader arrested for addressing three thousand workers at the St. Clairsville,...
M
Morris Trasken
Released
Morris Trasken was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed f...
P
Patrick Tully
Patrick Tully was convicted in the October 1868 murder of mining superintendent Alexander Rea and hanged at Bl...
F
Floyd Tyson
Released
Floyd Tyson was arrested at a Manayunk strike meeting in Philadelphia in May 1932 and charged with 10 days for...
F
Frederick Urban
Released
Frederick Urban, age 46, was arrested April 1995 in Scranton, Pennsylvania while driving a van containing expl...
J
John Vargo
Released
John Vargo was listed on the ILD's 1932 winter-relief roster of Western Pennsylvania class-war prisoners — coa...
M
Mike Vargo
Released
Mike Vargo was listed on the ILD's 1932 winter-relief roster of Western Pennsylvania class-war prisoners — coa...
S
Steve Vargo
Released
Steve Vargo was listed on the ILD's 1932 winter-relief roster of Western Pennsylvania class-war prisoners — co...
P
Philip Vigol
Released
Philip Vigol was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the W...
P
Paul Vogel
Released
Paul Vogel, from eastern Pennsylvania, began serving his prison sentence on December 18, 1918, in the Mercer C...
D
Dionisio Vélez Avilés
Dionisio Vélez Avilés was a Puerto Rican independence supporter imprisoned at Lewisburg. Executive Order 7731...
I
Isaac Walker
Released
Isaac Walker was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the W...
N
Nathan Joseph Waller
Released
Nathan Joseph Waller, 25, of Erie, PA was sentenced to 9 to 21.5 months in state prison and 60 days on electro...
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