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Wisconsin

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 Wisconsin.

119Documented
2In custody
111Released
1Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Wisconsin

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

1970s 21 1910s 19 2020s 17 1930s 17 1960s 16 2000s 12

Documented cases

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

Marquon Clark
In Custody
Marquon Clark is a Black social justice and anti-capitalist activist who firebombed the Madison City-County Bu...
Hridindu Roychowdhury
In Custody
Hridindu Sankar Roychowdhury, 30, of Madison WI, was arrested March 28, 2023 for the May 8, 2022 arson attack...
Dwight Armstrong
Released
Dwight Allan Armstrong was 19 years old at the time he and his older brother Karleton Armstrong, with David Fi...
Karleton Armstrong
Released
Karleton Lewis Karl Armstrong was a 23-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student in 1970 and the princi...
Matthew Banta
Released
Matthew Banta, known as "Commander Red" in anti-fascist circles, is a Neenah, Wisconsin organizer who was arre...
Victor Berger
Released
Victor Berger Born in Nieder-Rehbach, Austria-Hungary; emigrated 1878. Edited the Milwaukee Leader (1911–29) a...
Arthur Boose
Released
Arthur Boose, an IWW organizer from Abbotsford, Wisconsin, was convicted at the mass FWW trial in Chicago, sen...
Sherman Booth
Released
Sherman Miller Booth was a Wisconsin Republican newspaper editor (Wisconsin Free Democrat) who in 1854 led a M...
Henry Brinkman
Released
Henry Brinkman appears in the National Civil Liberties Bureau's March 1919 compilation "War-Time Prosecutions...
Leo Frederick Burt
In Exile
Leo Frederick Burt was a University of Wisconsin student and rowing crew member alleged to be the fourth consp...
Don Cotton
Released
Don Cotton was a 24-year-old co-chairman of Students for a Democratic Society at Saint Louis University and on...
Robert Cunnane
Released
Father Robert Cunnane was a 36-year-old Stigmatine Catholic priest from Massachusetts and one of the Milwaukee...
David Fine
Released
David Sylvan Fine was an 18-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student in 1970 and one of the four-man N...
Jerry Gardner
Released
Jerry Gardner was a 24-year-old Marquette University graduate student and one of the Milwaukee 14. He served 1...
William Gessert
Released
William Gessert, a farmer from Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, was sentenced to five years in prison for refusing...
Fernando González Llort
Released
One of the Cuban Five — Cuban intelligence officers convicted in 2001 in Miami of conspiracy to act as unregis...
James Harney
Released
Father James Harney was a 28-year-old Catholic priest of the Boston Archdiocese and one of the Milwaukee 14. A...
Jon Higgenbotham
Released
Jon Higgenbotham was a 27-year-old minister and one of the Milwaukee 14. He served 14 months in Wisconsin stat...
Ashton L. Howard
Released
Ashton L. Howard, 27, was indicted on federal charges of obstructing a law enforcement officer during a civil...
Alfred Janicke
Released
Father Alfred Janicke was a Catholic priest of the Saint Paul, Minnesota Archdiocese and one of the Milwaukee...
Gillam Kerley
Released
Executive director of the Committee Against Registration and the Draft. Indicted Nov. 1982 by a grand jury in...
Katie Kloth
Released
Krow is an environmental and indigenous rights activist who faced charges stemming from a June 2013 Penokee De...
Anthony Krohn
Felon-in-possession of firearm during June 2020 Madison protests. Sentence: 60 months federal prison. Verified...
John LaForge
Released
On August 10, 1984 LaForge and Barbara Katt walked into the Sperry Defense Systems plant at Eagan, Minnesota d...

Institutions in Wisconsin

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

FCI OxfordOxford, Wisconsin
12 cases
Milwaukee House of CorrectionMilwaukee, Wisconsin
11 cases
Dane County JailMadison, Wisconsin
7 cases
Ashland County JailAshland, Wisconsin
5 cases
Dane County Circuit Court
2 cases
Wisconsin state prisonMilwaukee, Wisconsin
2 cases
Wisconsin State PrisonWaupun, Wisconsin
2 cases
U.S. Federal Custom House Jail, MilwaukeeMilwaukee, Wisconsin
1 case