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Virginia
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 Virginia.
105Documented
2In custody
93Released
2Awaiting trial
Eras of repression in Virginia
Where Virginia’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.
1800s 30
1910s 12
2000s 11
1970s 10
2020s 9
2010s 9
Documented cases
105 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
G
Ghufran Ullah
Released
Ghufran Ullah, Pakistani citizen and crewmember of the dhow Yunus, was indicted August 7, 2024 in the Pahlawan...
J
Junius Underwood
Released
Junius "Boo Red" Underwood was a Black Panther Party member from Richmond, Virginia. Arrested at seventeen, he...
T
Thomas Wansley
Released
Thomas Wansley was a Black teenager arrested in 1962 in Lynchburg, Virginia at the age of 17 on a rape charge...
B
Burnham Wardwell
Released
Burnham Wardwell, a Maine-born ice dealer living in Richmond, was an outspoken Union sympathizer who quietly a...
E
Ernest D. Wells
Released
Ernest D. Wells, from Virginia, was a Christadelphian and objected to military service on religious grounds. H...
J
John Beery Wilson
Released
John Beery Wilson was a Church of the Brethren conscientious objector from Virginia imprisoned during World Wa...
S
Steve Woolford
Released
Steve Woolford was a Catholic Worker peace activist. He served six months in 2003 following a Pentagon blood-p...
A
Alexander Wright
Released
Alexander Wright was the Communist Party candidate for U.S. Senator arrested in Newport News, Virginia in 1934...
C
Charles Wright
Released
Charles Wright, of Accomac County, Virginia, was an Eastern Shore citizen confined for blockade running. He wa...
Institutions in Virginia
Prisons, jails, and detention centers in Virginia that appear in the census’s case files.
Occoquan Workhouse
15 cases
FCI PetersburgHopewell, Virginia
11 cases
Occoquan Workhouse / DC JailLorton, Virginia
11 cases
Virginia State PenitentiaryRichmond, Virginia
8 cases
Charles Town Jail (Jefferson County)Charles Town, Virginia
7 cases
Castle GodwinRichmond, Virginia
3 cases
Federal Reformatory, PetersburgPetersburg, Virginia
3 cases
Norfolk Naval Station (USS Iowa) — Nuclear Navy Plowshares
2 cases