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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
Recent dashboard entries from California
The newest published events and reporting located in California, updated automatically from the live dashboard.
Other
Whistleblower alleges FBI targeted Los Angeles anti-ICE protesters
Prosecution
Charges dropped against five Stanford students over pro-Palestine protest
Prosecution
Judge dismisses all charges against the Stud Alley 18 arrested during San Francisco Pride weekend
Protest
Two injured at Teamsters protest outside Amazon warehouse; sheriff says motorcyclist intentionally struck crowd
Other
Five invited reporters held at gunpoint by Vandenberg Space Force Base security
Other
Photojournalist Steven Berumen shoved by federal officers while covering an LA immigration protest
Prosecution
Anti-ICE protester accused of pouring lighter fluid on CHP car is sentenced to prison
Prosecution
Westlake man sentenced for anti-ICE protest actions
Documented cases
1,526 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
Awali Stoneham
Released
Awali Stoneham was listed as a New Afrikan / Black-liberation political prisoner, held at the Correctional Tra...
Herbert Stredwick
Released
Herbert Stredwick was a leader of the IWW's San Pedro, California, office and a Construction Workers and Marin...
Yetta Stromberg
Released
Yetta Stromberg was a nineteen-year-old member of the Young Communist League. Yetta Stromberg was a supervisor...
Herman Suhr
Released
Herman Suhr was an IWW organizer who, with Richard "Blackie" Ford, led the August 1913 hop-pickers' protest at...
Anne Symens-Bucher
Released
Anne Symens-Bucher was born in Oakland on September 17, 1957. She lived and worked with Dorothy Day at the New...
Faraz Martin Talab
Released
Faraz Martin Talab was one of the eleven defendants in the San Diego County District Attorney's prosecution of...
Olga Talamante
Released
Olga Talamante was a Bay Area Chicana activist and University of California, Santa Cruz graduate who, while do...
Luis Talamantez
Released
Luis Bato Talamantez was one of the San Quentin Six prosecuted for the events of August 21, 1971 at San Quenti...
Willie Tate
Released
Willie Tate was one of the San Quentin Six prosecuted for the events of August 21, 1971 at San Quentin. He was...
Cole Asher Taylor-Martin
Released
Cole Asher Taylor-Martin, age 35, of Fullerton CA, Greenpeace 28 - September 2019 Houston Ship Channel bridge...
Robert Telles
Released
Mexican-American youth convicted of second-degree murder in the mass Sleepy Lagoon trial of January 1943, foll...
Fred W. Thompson
Released
Fred W. Thompson was an IWW member arrested in Marysville, California, in April 1923. Fred W. Thompson receive...
Grace Thorpe
Released
Grace Thorpe, also known as No Ten O Quah, was a Sac and Fox Nation activist, Women’s Army Corps veteran and d...
Em Tillotson
Em Tillotson protested U.S. support for Israel by blocking the Golden Gate Bridge in April 2024. A jury convic...
Louise Todd
Released
Louise Todd was a California Communist Party official sentenced in 1935 to one to fourteen years at the Tehach...
John Trudell
Released
John Trudell was a Santee Dakota poet, musician, and the spokesperson for the 1969–71 Indigenous occupation of...
Dalton Trumbo
Released
Dalton Trumbo, at the time one of the highest-paid screenwriters in Hollywood and the author of the antiwar no...
Warren Tucker
Released
Warren Tucker was one of the Black Panthers arrested after the May 2, 1967 demonstration at the California Sta...
Watani Tyehimba
Released
Watani Tyehimba is a longtime activist of the New Afrikan Independence Movement and a founding member of the N...
Clayton Van Lydegraf
Released
Clayton Van Lydegraf was a longtime communist, labour and anti-imperialist organiser who had belonged to the C...
Joe Veale
Released
Joe Veale was a Richmond Panther detained on February 9, 1970 during newspaper and breakfast-program work. The...
Roger Ver
Released
Roger Ver was a Libertarian political activist who ran for the California Statehouse on a platform of abolishi...
Antonio I. Villarreal
Released
Antonio I. Villarreal was a Mexican revolutionary and Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) organizer who, with Ricar...
Louis Vitale
Released
Father Louis Vitale OFM was an American Franciscan friar, U.S. Air Force veteran (he served as a pilot before...
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