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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.
120Documented
2In custody
112Released
1Awaiting trial
Eras of repression in Wisconsin
Where Wisconsin’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.
1970s 21
1910s 19
2020s 18
1930s 17
1960s 16
2000s 12
Documented cases
120 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
J
John Perrote
Released
John Perrote was a member of the Menominee Warrior Society and one of the leaders prosecuted after its 1975 ta...
H
Herb Powless
Released
Oneida AIM leader and founder of the Milwaukee chapter of the American Indian Movement, imprisoned at the fede...
T
Teri Rainelli
Released
Teri Rainelli — SOA Watch line-crosser at Fort Benning, Georgia. Convicted of trespass on a military installat...
L
Leo A. Randle
Released
Leo A. Randle, 19, was arrested May 1, 2024 at the University of Wisconsin Madison Palestine encampment for hi...
A
Arieon Robinson
Released
Arieon Robinson, 22, is an activist from Wisconsin who was among the first five people arrested at the Stop Co...
J
Jeremy J. Ryan
Released
On June 26, 2020 Jeremy J. Ryan, 31, of Madison, WI was charged with making terrorist threats and stalking (bo...
J
Justin Samuel
Released
Justin Samuel was an animal rights activist who, with Peter Young, broke onto mink farms in Iowa, South Dakota...
T
Tamu Sana
Released
RNA citizen from Milwaukee, age 24 at the time of the raid. Married to Hekima Ana. Held about 10 months in Mis...
R
Reingold Sass
Released
Reingold Sass was a conscientious objector from Wisconsin imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for r...
C
Charles Sauer
Released
Charles Sauer appears in the National Civil Liberties Bureau's March 1919 compilation "War-Time Prosecutions a...
D
Delmar Schwaller
Released
Delmar Schwaller — SOA Watch line-crosser at Fort Benning, Georgia. Convicted of trespass on a military instal...
S
Stephen Schweitzer
Released
Stephen Schweitzer — SOA Watch line-crosser at Fort Benning, Georgia. Convicted of trespass on a military inst...
J
Jesse Shackelford
Released
Jesse Shackelford is a prison abolitionist and a CUNY law student who, after the 2020 Uprisings, was called to...
M
Mary Alice Shemo
Released
Mary Alice Shemo was arrested for King Day trespass at Project ELF on January 17, 1999. Sentenced to 9 days in...
T
Tyshaun T. Smith
Released
In June 2020 in Milwaukee, WI, Tyshaun T. Smith, 26, was charged with attempted arson and possession of a dest...
M
Michael Sprong
Released
Michael Sprong was part of the Silence Trident direct disarmament action against Project ELF, the U.S. Navy's...
M
Mike Sturdevant
Released
Menominee Warrior Society leader who, with his brothers, led the 1975 armed occupation of the abandoned Alexia...
P
Platon Surdonowitz
Released
Platon Surdonowitz was a conscientious objector from Wisconsin imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed...
B
Bonnie Urfer
Released
Bonnie Urfer is a long-time staff member of Nukewatch, the Wisconsin-based anti-nuclear watchdog group, and ha...
D
Devon Vaughn
Released
Devon Vaughn, 23, was indicted on July 7, 2021 for setting fire to a furniture store at a Kenosha, WI protest...
J
John Waubanascum Jr.
John Waubanascum Jr. was a member of the Menominee Warrior Society and one of the leaders prosecuted after its...
J
Jesse White
Released
Jesse White (also spelled Jessie White) was a member of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin chapter of the Black Panther...
J
Jerome Zawada
Released
Father Jerome 'Jerry' Zawada OFM was a Franciscan friar of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Province...
A
Alberto de Jesús Berríos
Released
Alberto de Jesús Berríos was a Puerto Rican independence activist — for years a distributor of the Puerto Rica...
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