Skip to content
Learn More → State by State

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.

J
James Robinson
Released
James Robinson was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and marched...
J
John E. Robinson
Released
John E. Robinson was arrested on September 20, 1864. Marshall identifies Robinson as a Philadelphian arrested...
M
Mansfield Robinson
Mansfield Robinson was one of three unemployed workers arrested after deputies attacked participants in a May...
W
Willie Robinson
Willie was a prisoner in SCI Camp Hill’s Special Management Unit named in a report alleging abuse on January 2...
W
William Rodan
Released
William Rodan was named in the later exile records as one of the men sent to Virginia with the Philadelphia pr...
T
Tom Rodd
Released
Thomas Whitney Rodd was a pacifist who refused draft registration and protested the Vietnam War. After an init...
J
Joe Romango
Released
Joe Romango was an Unemployment Council participant arrested during the police raid on a relief delegation at...
L
Lin Romano
Released
Lin M. Romano was an advocate for the poor from Washington, D.C. and an Epiphany Plowshares participant. Milit...
J
Jacob W. Rose
Released
Jacob W. Rose was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed fo...
D
Douglas Roth
Rev. Douglas Roth was a Lutheran minister and labor-support activist in the Pittsburgh-area church and union c...
E
Evelyn Roth
Evelyn Roth was a speaker for the Trade Union Unity League at McKeesport on September 1, 1930. The Daily Worke...
H
Harry Roth
Released
Harry Roth was a Communist Party member arrested in Chester, Pennsylvania on October 2, 1931 while speaking at...
B
Ben Rubin
Released
Ben Rubin was a Communist Party organizer in Reading, Pennsylvania, a wounded Spanish Civil War veteran, and a...
G
George Rucher
George Rucher is named in Marshall in his list of people arrested and confined from Clearfield County, Pennsyl...
B
Bernard Rush
Released
Bernard Rush, a student at the Workers School in Philadelphia, was arrested with school director Adolph Heller...
J
John Ryan
John Ryan was the chief negotiator of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. On February 9, 1973, Judge D. D...
G
Gus Safis
Released
Gus Safis was a Young Communist League member prosecuted over an attempted antiwar street meeting in McKeespor...
G
Goust Safos
Released
Goust Safos was a convicted defendant in the McKeesport, Pennsylvania anti-war "riot" case of 1937. In 1937 Mc...
N
Nick Samer
Nick Samer was one of three workers named on page 3 of the Daily Worker, October 15, 1931, as arrested and hel...
D
David Sand
David Sand, reported aged 23 and of Sixtieth Street near Pine, was individually named among eleven people arre...
M
M. Sand
M. Sand was a Young Communist League member arrested at a Philadelphia waterfront meeting organized by the Com...
P
Paul Sandargos
Released
Paul Sandargos was a coal miner from Scran ton, Pennsylvania. Paul Sandargos was convicted for distributing li...
A
Arnold Sandback
Released
Arnold Sandback was listed among imprisoned draft and conscientious resisters in contemporary CCCO reports fro...
C
Cornelia Sanders
Cornelia Sanders was one of two Black workers arrested in Philadelphia on March 26, 1931, for distributing lea...

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