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Washington

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 Washington.

280Documented
1In custody
270Released
2Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Washington

Where Washington’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.

1910s 141 2000s 22 1950s 21 2020s 19 1970s 19 2010s 11

Documented cases

280 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.

E
Ed Roth
Released
Ed Roth was one of the 74 Industrial Workers of the World members held in the Snohomish County jail and charge...
J
James Rowan
Released
James Rowan, the secretary-treasurer of the Lumber Workers Industrial Union, Local 500, from Spokane, Washingt...
T
Thomas Savage
Released
Thomas Savage was one of the 74 Industrial Workers of the World members held in the Snohomish County jail and...
O
Otto Frederick Schmidt
Released
Otto Frederick Schmidt, a twenty-six-year-old member of the IWW arrested in Spokane, Washington, was held for...
K
Karol Schulkin
Released
Early Ground Zero member arrested with Shelley Douglass and Mary Grondin walking the warhead rail line into Ba...
B
Bruce Seidel
Former University of Illinois economics graduate student turned prison-rights activist who helped found the Se...
E
E. J. Shapeero
Released
E. J. Shapeero was one of the 74 Industrial Workers of the World members held in the Snohomish County jail and...
H
H. Shebeck
Released
H. Shebeck was one of the 74 Industrial Workers of the World members held in the Snohomish County jail and cha...
J
John Sherman
Released
Met Ed Mead at McNeil Island federal prison in the late 1960s and joined the George Jackson Brigade through th...
A
Ali Shokri
Former Iranian Air Force member who defected to the U.S. in 1973 to escape political persecution and then face...
J
Joshua Simpson
Released
Iraq War combat veteran and Evergreen State College student arrested at the November 2007 Port of Olympia bloc...
L
Lawrence Simpson
Released
Lawrence Simpson was an American seaman seized by Nazi secret police from the American ship Manhattan at Hambu...
D
David Sohappy
Released
David Sohappy Sr., known as Tucknashut, was a Wanapum and Yakama fisherman and religious leader who became a c...
H
H. Sokol
Released
H. Sokol was one of the 74 Industrial Workers of the World members held in the Snohomish County jail and charg...
E
E. J. Sonnenburg
Released
E. J. Sonnenburg served a prison sentence at McNeil Island Penitentiary from July 31, 1918, to June 21, 1920.
W
W. E. Spear
Released
W. E. Spear was the Seattle district secretary-treasurer of an IWW industrial union organization. On April 22,...
R
Roman Storm
Awaiting Trial
Roman Storm is a Russian-American software developer from Auburn, Washington, and a co-founder of Tornado Cash...
D
Deborah Stout
Released
Deborah Stout volunteered with the Coalition Against Fur Farms. In 1994 she was confined for civil contempt af...
A
Al M. Talaga
Released
Al M. Talaga, 32, of Auburn, WA was arrested and charged federally as a felon in possession of a firearm. On J...
R
Ramon Tancioco
Released
Ramon Tancioco was a member of ILWU Local 37, the Seattle Filipino cannery workers' union, facing deportation...
S
St. William Thomas
Released
St. William Thomas was a conscientious objector from Washington imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed...
J
James P. Thompson
Released
James P. Thompson, one of the founders of the IWW, from Seattle, Washington, was convicted at the mass IWW tri...
K
Kyle Robert Tornow
Released
Kyle Robert Tornow, 36, of Seattle, was arrested April 22, 2021 for using the Portland Police TrackIT system o...
P
Ponce Torres
Released
Ponce Torres was a member of ILWU Local 37, the Seattle Filipino cannery workers' union, facing deportation un...

Institutions in Washington

Prisons, jails, and detention centers in Washington that appear in the census’s case files.

Snohomish County JailEverett, Washington
75 cases
McNeil Island Federal PenitentiarySteilacoom, Washington
63 cases
USP McNeil IslandSteilacoom, Washington
46 cases
Washington State PenitentiaryWalla Walla, Washington
10 cases
SeaTac Federal Detention CenterSeaTac, Washington
8 cases
Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla / U.S. District Court, W.D. WashingtonWalla Walla, Washington
7 cases
Washington State Penitentiary at Walla WallaWalla Walla, Washington
5 cases
Washington State ReformatoryMonroe, Washington
5 cases