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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.

Randy Rowland
Released
Randy Rowland, identified as Stephen Rowland in the official court-martial record, was a U.S. Army medic and o...
Danny Roxas
Released
Danny Roxas was a farm worker activist and IWW officer. Danny Roxas received a two- to twenty-eight-year priso...
Irving David Rubin
Released
Irving David Rubin, 74, JDL Chairman and former Air Force serviceman, was indicted December 12, 2001 with Earl...
Rebecca Rubin
Released
Rebecca Rubin is an environmentalist affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front. She received a 5-year sentenc...
Anthony Russo
Released
Anthony Russo was a former RAND Corporation analyst who helped Daniel Ellsberg photocopy the Pentagon Papers,...
Domenick Sallitto
Released
Domenick Sallitto was an Italian-born anarchist in the San Francisco Bay Area who chaired anarchist meetings a...
Ramon L. Sanchez
Released
Ramon L. Sanchez was a Spanish-born laborer and Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) organizer arrested in Sa...
Rodolfo Sanchez
Released
Rodolfo “Rudy” Sanchez was a member of La Casa de Carnalismo, an East Los Angeles organization that opposed he...
Vincent Santilli
Released
Vincent Santilli was a miner from Sacramento, California. Vincent Santilli was convicted at the mass IWW trial...
Benjamin Sasway
Released
Benjamin H. Sasway was a California college student who publicly refused to register with the Selective Servic...
Earl Satcher
Earl Satcher was a Black Panther prisoner at Soledad. Contemporary reporting individually places him in the ex...
Mario Savio
Released
Mario Savio was the son of Sicilian immigrants and became the leading orator of the 1964 Berkeley Free Speech...
Esther Sazer
Released
Esther Sazer was a Russian-born Los Angeles office worker and member of the Independent Office Workers targete...
Henry Schmidt
Released
Henry Schmidt was an officer of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union prosecuted with Harry Bridges...
Matthew Schmidt
Released
Matthew Schmidt was an anarchist and union ironworker connected to the McNamara brothers' bombing of the Los A...
Emma Schneiderman
Released
Emma Schneiderman was one of the staff of the communist children's summer camp at Yucaipa, California convicte...
William Schneiderman
Released
William Schneiderman was the secretary of the California Communist Party and, after the 1951 arrests, its acti...
Hermann M. Schwinn
Released
Hermann M. Schwinn was a West Coast leader of the German American Bund. He organized and spoke at Bund events...
Adrian Scott
Released
Adrian Scott, the producer of the acclaimed anti-antisemitism film noir “Crossfire” (1947), which was in theat...
Artie Seale
Released
Artie Seale was a Black Panther organizer and the first wife of party co-founder Bobby Seale. Police arrested...
Bobby Seale
Released
Bobby Seale was the co-founder, with Huey P. Newton, of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland in...
Tamura R. Seiji
Released
Tamura R. Seiji was one of 22 Greenpeace activists federally charged after the September 12, 2019 blockade of...
J. Tony Serra
Released
J. Tony Serra is a legendary San Francisco criminal defense attorney known for representing Black Panthers, th...
Sanyika Shakur
Released
Sanyika Shakur, born Kody Dejohn Scott on November 13, 1963, was an author and former Los Angeles gang member....

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