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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.

840Documented
10In custody
552Released
3Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Pennsylvania

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

1930s 260 1700s 79 1910s 76 1920s 73 1960s 69 1800s 61

Documented cases

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

G
George Issaski
George Issaski was described in the April 4, 1935 Daily Worker’s account of company rule in Aliquippa as arres...
G
George Issoski
Released
George Issoski was a worker associated with the struggle against Jones & Laughlin company repression in Aliqui...
J
John J. Blaczik
John J. Blaczik was confined indefinitely for contempt of an injunction during the Aberle hosiery strike in Ph...
R
Ronald Jackson
Ronald was a prisoner in SCI Camp Hill’s Special Management Unit named in a report alleging abuse on January 2...
G
George Jalbert
Released
George Jalbert was imprisoned at Allenwood as a conscientious or antiwar resister during the 1960s.
F
Frank Jellison
Released
Frank Jellison appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’1969 current-prisoner lists of dra...
E
Emerson P. Jennings
Released
Emerson P. Jennings was a Wilkes-Barre printer, union member and organizer of the Luzerne County Unemployed Le...
C
Charles Jervis
Released
Charles Jervis was a Philadelphia Quaker. His surname was also spelled Jarvis. He was one of the "Virginia Exi...
S
Sam Jessop
Sam was a Turtle Creek Unemployed Councils organizer imprisoned at Blawnox. PDF page 4 identifies the Turtle...
R
Rene Johnson
Released
Rene Johnson was a Philadelphia Black Panther Party acting officer of the day, arrested at gunpoint at about10...
T
T. Johnson
T. Johnson was an Unemployed Council leader in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, reported arrested in a June 20, 1934...
T
Tom Johnson
Tom Johnson was reported jailed under $1,000 bail on inciting-to-riot, obstructing-legal-process and intimidat...
W
William Johnson
Released
William Johnson was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and marche...
E
Edgar Jones
Edgar Jones was among the coal-strike defendants named in the July 24 Pittsburgh bulletin published in the Dai...
M
M. J. Jones
Released
M. J. Jones is named in Marshall among the four editors and proprietors of Harrisburg's Patriot and Union arre...
O
Owen Jones Jr.
Released
Owen Jones Jr. was a Philadelphia Quaker merchant and son of Owen Jones, the last provincial treasurer of Penn...
W
Walter Vann Jones
Released
Walter Vann Jones appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’ 1968 lists of imprisoned draft...
W
Wasyl Jowchalk
Released
Wasyl Jowchalk was listed in the National Civil Liberties Bureau's March 1919 compilation "War-Time Prosecutio...
A
Alvin Joyner
Alvin Joyner was a member of the Philadelphia Black liberation group known as the Revolutionaries and a defend...
P
Pete Jugrine
Released
Pete Jugrine was a Black miner serving a year at the Blawnox Workhouse, one of the National Miners' Union stri...
T
Theodore Karnesky
Theodore Karnesky was arrested while picketing during the Russellton coal strike. The May 11, 1928 newspaper d...
J
Joe Kaross
Joe Kaross was SoniaKaross’s husband. PatriciaHickerson’s retrospective biography in Laisve,March30,1984 says...
J
John Katkus
Released
John Katkus was listed in the National Civil Liberties Bureau's March 1919 compilation "War-Time Prosecutions...
I
Irving Katz
Released
Irving Katz was arrested on January 1, 1953. Irvin Katz was prosecuted as part of the Philadelphia Nine Smith...

Institutions in Pennsylvania

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

Fort MifflinPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
48 cases
Allegheny County WorkhouseBlawnox, Pennsylvania
34 cases
Walnut Street JailPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
20 cases
Philadelphia GaolPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
18 cases
United States Penitentiary, LewisburgLewisburg, Pennsylvania
14 cases
Butler County PrisonButler, Pennsylvania
11 cases
FCI AllenwoodWhite Deer, Pennsylvania
10 cases
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas / SCI Pennsylvania state prisonsPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
9 cases