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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.

S
Steven Burke
Released
White anti-imperialist activist imprisoned at FCI Lewisburg in the 1980s on charges related to resistance and...
T
Thomas Burney
Released
Thomas Burney was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the...
F
Francis B. Callahan
Released
Known as Frank Callahan, from Philadelphia, one of the eight Flower City Conspiracy members arrested Sept 6, 1...
B
Benjamin Careathers
Released
Benjamin Careathers was a veteran Black Communist organizer in Pittsburgh, convicted in the western Pennsylvan...
B
Ben Carreathers
Released
Ben Carreathers was a Black Communist and steelworkers' organizer and one of the defendants known as the "Pitt...
E
Elias Clayton
Released
Elias Clayton was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed fo...
S
Shawn Collins
Shawn Collins was arrested and charged in connection with a federal firearms case tied to Philadelphia’s June...
J
Juan Bautista Colón Rivera
Juan Bautista Colón Rivera was a Puerto Rican independence supporter imprisoned at Lewisburg. Executive Order...
T
Thomas Coombe
Released
The Rev. Thomas Coombe was an Anglican clergyman and poet, an assistant minister at Christ Church, Philadelphi...
J
John Corbly
Released
Reverend John Corbly was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and m...
J
John Crawford
Released
John Crawford, son of Colonel Crawford was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western...
W
William Crawford
Released
Colonel William Crawford was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania a...
J
John Cresswell
Released
John Cresswell was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the...
I
Isidore Curson
Released
Isidore Curson was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed f...
M
Marmaduke Curtis
Released
Marmaduke Curtis was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of t...
M
Martin Darkow
Released
Martin Darkow, from Easton, Pennsylvania, began serving a prison sentence on December 30, 1918. C. W. Davis, s...
J
Joseph Davenport
Released
Joseph Davenport was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed...
D
David Davis
Released
David Davis was another of the Philadelphia Nine defendants in the 1950s Smith Act prosecution; legal records...
D
Dylan Davis
Released
Dylan Davis was arrested in connection with Lancaster’s September 2020 racial-justice protest and spent Septem...
P
Paul Davis
Released
Paul Davis, identified in contemporary reports as an ACT UP/Philadelphia leader, was arrested during the Augus...
T
Tony De Bernardini
Released
Tony De Bernardini, a union coal miner at Cheswick, Pennsylvania, was beaten so badly by state police in the 2...
H
Hugh Dempsey
Released
Knights of Labor District Master Workman convicted in 1892 of conspiracy to poison strikebreakers at the Homes...
D
David D. Derstine
Released
David D. Derstine was a Mennonite conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Cour...
P
Phillip Desch
Phillip Desch was a Pennsylvania German participant in Fries’s Rebellion who was jailed for resisting the 1798...

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