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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.

James P. Wilson
Released
James P. Wilson was arrested among the Spokane IWW leaders in November 1909 in Washington. He was released on...
Abraham B. Wimborne
Released
Abraham B. Wimborne was one of the 74 Industrial Workers of the World members held in the Snohomish County jai...
William Winn
Released
William Winn was one of the 74 Industrial Workers of the World members held in the Snohomish County jail and c...
Alfredo Juarez Zeferino
In Exile
Co-founder of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, the Washington state berry-farmworker union. Mixtec migrant far...
C
Casimiro Absolar
Released
Casimiro Absolar was a Filipino member of ILWU Local 37, the Seattle Filipino cannery workers' union, facing d...
S
Stanley Anderson
Released
Stanley Anderson was a painter and Communist legislative candidate, sentenced to six to eight months and a $10...
C
Chuck Armsbury
Released
Chuck Armsbury chaired the Eugene, Oregon chapter of the Patriot Party, the white working-class wing of the Ra...
W
Welton Armstead
Welton "Butch" Armstead was a 17-year-old member of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party and one of...
W
Walter Baer
Released
Walter Baer was a Seattle engineer and Depression-era activist for the unemployed, ordered deported to Germany...
R
Ray Baker
Released
Ray Baker was imprisoned at Washington State Penitentiary during Washington's criminal-syndicalism prosecution...
J
Johnny Baranski
Released
Johnny Baranski was a haiku poet and Catholic Worker activist. His resistance to war and nuclear weapons led t...
K
Kim Berardi
Released
Kim Berardi is an animal-rights activist who spent several days in federal custody at SeaTac in July 2004 for...
J
Jeffrey Berryhill
Released
Named plaintiff in Panagacos v. Towery (W.D. Wash. No. 3:10-cv-05018-RBL), the federal civil-rights lawsuit fi...
J
Janine Bertram
Released
Joined the George Jackson Brigade after becoming involved with Rita "Bo" Brown, serving as the group's getaway...
S
Silas Trim Bissell
Released
White anti-imperialist organizer and Weather Underground fugitive who lived under an assumed identity for 17 y...
C
Charles Black
Released
Charles Black was one of the 74 Industrial Workers of the World members held in the Snohomish County jail and...
J
John W. Bowdoin
Released
John W. Bowdoin was one of the 74 Industrial Workers of the World members held in the Snohomish County jail an...
P
Paul Bowen
Released
Paul Bowen was a Seattle Smith Act defendant, one of those tried in the Northwest prosecutions for conspiring...
G
George Bradley
Released
George Bradley had reportedly served as secretary of the Everett IWW local for only one day before local autho...
E
E.I. Brandt
Released
E.I. Brandt was a conscientious objector from Washington imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for re...
A
Al Bridges
Released
Al (Alvin) Bridges was a Nisqually fisherman and a central figure of the Frank's Landing fishing-rights strugg...
S
Suzette Bridges
Released
Suzette Bridges (later Suzette Mills) was a Nisqually activist of the Frank's Landing family at the heart of t...
V
Valerie Bridges
Released
Valerie Bridges was a young Nisqually activist of the Frank's Landing family central to the treaty fishing-rig...
S
Samantha Frances Brooks
Released
Samantha Frances Brooks is a Bellingham, Washington activist who placed a shunting device on BNSF railroad tra...

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