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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.

C
Cornelius Shucker
Cornelius Shucker is named in Marshall in his list of people arrested and confined from Clearfield County, Pen...
G
George Shucker
George Shucker is named in Marshall in his list of people arrested and confined from Clearfield County, Pennsy...
H
Henry Shucker
Henry Shucker is named in Marshall in his list of people arrested and confined from Clearfield County, Pennsyl...
R
Raymond Sienna
Raymond Sienna was one of the ten Cheswick defendants individually named in Vern Smith’s retrospective article...
H
Heinz Silver
Heinz Silver, a Young Communist League member, was arrested the morning of June 28, 1934 in Philadelphia’s Mar...
C
Chuck Simington
Released
Chuck Simington was listed among imprisoned draft and conscientious resisters in contemporary CCCO reports fro...
M
Mike Simmons
Released
Mike Simmons was listed among imprisoned draft and conscientious resisters in contemporary CCCO reports from 1...
E
Eli Sitkin
Released
Eli Sitkin joined an unemployed-workers delegation seeking to present demands at the American Federation of La...
A
Andy Skarupa
Released
Andy Skarupa was a Westland-district striker held in the coal roundup at the Blawnox Workhouse, one of the Nat...
M
Mike Sklarski
Mike Sklarski was a militant coal striker imprisoned in the Allegheny County workhouse at Blawnox. The annual...
M
Mike Sklorski
Mike Sklorski is individually named in the November 24, 1931 Daily Worker roster of workers then serving sente...
C
Charles Skowronski
Released
Charles Skowronski was arrested with three other speakers at a strike meeting in Manayunk, Philadelphia, on Ma...
Y
Yvonne Small
Released
Yvonne was a political prisoner identified as a petitioner in the 1990 Special International Tribunal on Polit...
D
David Smith
David was a prisoner in SCI Camp Hill’s Special Management Unit named in a report alleging abuse on January 20...
M
Mary Smith
Mary Smith was one of six anti-fascist pickets jailed after a Free Thaelmann demonstration before the German c...
R
Robert T. Smith
Released
Robert T. Smith led clothing-store pickets in New Kensington in 1950. He served ten months following an affray...
R
Ronald J. Smith
Released
Ronald J. Smith appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’ 1968 lists of imprisoned draft a...
S
Susan Smith
Susan Smith was arrested during the April 18, 2025 Good Friday peace action at Lockheed Martin in King of Prus...
W
William Drewet Smith
Released
William Drewet Smith was a Philadelphia druggist. He was among those arrested in September 1777 and named in t...
W
William Smith
Released
William Smith, a Philadelphia broker (so distinguished in the records from the other men of that common name),...
H
Harry Snyder
Harry Snyder was identified in the Daily Worker of October 23, 1934, page 3, as a target of police action afte...
J
James Snyder
James Snyder was arrested in June 1934 during resistance to an eviction in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania. The Dai...
J
Joe Soch
Joe Soch was a labor prisoner held in the Allegheny County Workhouse at Blawnox after the 1931 coal strike. Th...
J
Julius Soich
Released
Julius Soich was a Western Pennsylvania coal-strike prisoner supported by the International Labor Defense. The...

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