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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.
425Documented
6In custody
371Released
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
425 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
S
Sam Benato
Released
Sam Benato was an anthracite miner of the Pittston, Pennsylvania region jailed in the Eastern State Penitentia...
E
Edgar S. Benedict
Released
Edgar S. Benedict was a Church of the Brethren conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during Worl...
A
Anne Bennis
Released
Anne Bennis was a teacher from Philadelphia active in the Atlantic Life Community network of nonviolent resist...
M
Martin Bergen
Martin Bergen was convicted of murder in the anthracite-region violence and hanged at Pottsville on January 16...
S
Sam Betti
Released
Sam Betti was listed on the ILD's 1932 winter-relief roster of Western Pennsylvania class-war prisoners — coal...
G
George Bingula
Released
George Bingula was a union coal miner of Harmarville, Pennsylvania, arrested several times by the coal-and-iro...
J
John Black
Released
John Black was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the Whi...
R
Raekwon Dac Blankenship
Released
Raekwon Dac Blankenship, 24, of Pittsburgh, charged July 22, 2020 with damaging unmarked and marked police veh...
I
Israel Blankenstein
Released
Israel Blankenstein was an organizer for the Communist Party prosecuted in Pennsylvania for underground Commun...
A
Anna Bogansky
Released
Anna Bogansky was arrested at the furriers' convention delegation in Philadelphia in May 1932 and charged with...
T
Tom Boich
Released
Tom Boich was a miner serving twenty months, gravely ill with stomach trouble at the Blawnox Workhouse, one of...
D
David Bolton
Released
David Bolton was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the W...
P
Phineas Bond
Released
Phineas Bond was among the Philadelphians seized in the September 1777 arrests and named in the exile records...
W
William Bonham
Released
William Bonham was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the...
T
Tom Borich
Released
Tom Borich was listed on the ILD's 1932 winter-relief roster of Western Pennsylvania class-war prisoners — coa...
H
Harry Boswell
Released
Harry Boswell was a twenty-eight-year-old striker shot and wounded after a tear-gas attack in the Westland mar...
J
James Boyle
James Boyle was convicted of the July 6, 1875 murder of Tamaqua borough policeman Benjamin F. Yost, and was on...
S
Steve Bratich
Released
Steve Bratich — the surname also appears as Bradich — was the fourth defendant in the Woodlawn (Aliquippa), Pe...
E
Emma Brletic
Released
Emma Brletic was a striker in the 1933 Ambridge, Pennsylvania steel strike, sentenced to two years and a $500...
A
Albert Brown
Released
Albert Brown was arrested with Anna Burlak in the 1929 red raid on a May-Day meeting of the Ukrainian Workingm...
E
Elijah Brown
Released
Elijah Brown, a Philadelphia Quaker shopkeeper and conveyancer and the father of the novelist Charles Brockden...
W
Willie Brown
Willie Brown was a sixteen-year-old Black youth of Philadelphia sentenced to the electric chair on 13 May 1932...
F
Frank J. Buck
Released
Frank J. Buck was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed fo...
S
Steven Burke
Released
White anti-imperialist activist imprisoned at FCI Lewisburg in the 1980s on charges related to resistance and...
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