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California

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 California.

1,526Documented
39In custody
898Released
17Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in California

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

1930s 354 1970s 205 1960s 198 1910s 174 2020s 131 1980s 90

Documented cases

1,526 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.

Gabriel Meyers
Released
Gabriel Meyers is a protestor who — in the aftermath of the BART police killing of Oscar Grant in Oakland — sp...
Norman Mini
Released
Norman Mini was a Sacramento native and former West Point cadet who worked with the Cannery and Agricultural W...
Bella Mintz
Released
Bella Mintz was one of the staff of the communist children's summer camp at Yucaipa, California convicted in 1...
Bernon F. Mitchell
In Exile
Bernon F. Mitchell was a National Security Agency cryptologist who defected with William Hamilton Martin in 19...
John Mitigli
Released
John Mitigli was arrested and clubbed leading a 1930 Oakland, California City Hall demonstration protesting po...
Kevin Mitnick
Released
Kevin Mitnick was charged and convicted of crimes described in this record as having no political connection....
Richard Mohawk
Released
American Indian Movement (AIM) activist framed with Paul Skyhorse in the 1974 killing of cab driver George Air...
Jose Manuel Mojica
Released
Jose Manuel Mojica joined a June 7, 2025 demonstration against immigration raids in Paramount, California. Fed...
Carlos Montes
Released
Carlos Montes was a Brown Beret organizer and editor of La Vida Nueva at East Los Angeles College. He was pros...
Rena Mooney
Released
Rena Mooney was a San Francisco music teacher, socialist activist, and the wife of Tom Mooney. She was indicte...
Thomas Mooney
Released
Thomas Mooney was a San Francisco labor organizer and IWW militant — son of an Irish coal-miner Knights of Lab...
Renee Moore
Renee Moore, known as Peaches, was a Panther at Central Avenue headquarters during the raid. Contemporary repo...
Luis Francisco Mora
Released
Luis Francisco Mora was one of eleven anti-fascist counter-protesters prosecuted after confrontations with sup...
Stephen Morgan
Released
Stephen Morgan was a British freelance photographer jailed while documenting Greenpeace’s 2001 Vandenberg anti...
Catherine Morris
Released
Catherine Morris is a longtime Los Angeles Catholic Worker — celebrating 50 years at the LA Catholic Worker in...
Leslie Mullin
Released
White anti-imperialist activist arrested in November 1977 in Los Angeles as one of the PFOC/LA 5 on conspiracy...
Julie Mungai
Julie Mungai was one of the Los Angeles Eight, detained in U.S. maximum-security prisons for several weeks in...
Mike Murhiti
Page 3's individually labeled group photograph names Mike Murhiti among seven people arrested at the Oakland C...
Steven James Murphy
Released
Steven James Murphy, age 43, was charged in 2009 with attempted arson, possession of an unregistered destructi...
Samir Nazareth
Released
Samir Nazareth was a Indian Greenpeace participant jailed in California following the 2001 Vandenberg anti-mis...
Jerry Newson
Released
Jerry Newson was a nineteen-year-old Oakland shoeshine worker arrested on October 25, 1949 and sentenced to de...
Huey P. Newton
Released
Huey P. Newton was the co-founder, with Bobby Seale, of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in October 19...
Solomon Nitzberg
Solomon Nitzberg was forced from his house after vigilantes answered a shotgun blast with tear gas that overca...
Robert Noble
Released
Robert Noble was a Los Angeles political agitator and leader of the Friends of Progress, which he directed wit...

Institutions in California

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

San Quentin State PrisonSan Quentin, California
171 cases
Federal Bureau of Prisons
60 cases
Sharp Park Detention CampSharp Park, California
33 cases
Presidio StockadeSan Francisco, California
27 cases
Los Angeles County JailLos Angeles, California
26 cases
Folsom State PrisonFolsom, California
22 cases
San Quentin Rehabilitation CenterSan Quentin, California
16 cases
San Diego County JailSan Diego, California
13 cases