Learn More → State by State
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.
793Documented
19In custody
706Released
9Awaiting trial
Eras of repression in California
Where California’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.
1910s 164
1970s 123
1930s 97
1960s 85
2000s 72
1950s 66
Documented cases
793 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
C
Clarence G. Maurer
Released
Clarence G. Maurer was a Quaker conscientious objector from California imprisoned during World War I. Court-ma...
J
James McClain
San Quentin prisoner on trial for allegedly assaulting a guard when Jonathan Jackson entered the Marin County...
F
Francis E. McClennigan
Released
F. E. McClennigan, from Los Angeles, served a prison sentence at San Quentin under California state syndicalis...
T
Thomas McDermott
Released
Thomas McDermott was charged with "feloniously circulating and publicly displaying certain books" in violation...
R
Ricky McGivery
Black Marine, one of the 'Camp Pendleton 14' charged with assault and conspiracy over an alleged Nov. 13, 1976...
E
E. D. McNassor
Released
E. D. McNassor, an IWW member from Portola, received a four-year prison sentence, which he served in San Quent...
J
John McRae
Released
John McRae, an IWW member from Eureka, received a three-year prison sentence for having an IWW membership card...
J
Jose Medina
Chicano activist who spoke in support of the Camp Pendleton 14 and was himself fighting deportation to Mexico....
E
Enrique Medina Fernandez
Released
Enrique Medina Fernandez was one of five Spanish sailors who deserted a Franco naval vessel and crossed into t...
R
Robert Meisenbach
Released
Robert Meisenbach was a University of California student charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon — ac...
J
Julian Renee Mejia
Released
On September 10, 2020 Julian Renee Mejia, 35, of Los Angeles, CA pled "no contest" to a charge of looting. He...
D
Danilo Melendez
Released
Danilo Melendez was one of Los Siete de la Raza, a group of young Latino men from the Mission District of San...
P
Phillip Mellman
Released
Phillip Mellman, an IWW member from Sacramento, received a four-year prison sentence, which he served in San Q...
A
Arthur G. Melville
Released
A former Maryknoll priest who, with his brother Thomas Melville, had been a missionary among the Maya in Guate...
F
Fred Mermon
Released
Fred Mermon was one of the railway shopmen convicted in the frame-up that grew out of the 1922 nationwide shop...
C
Claude Merritt
Released
Claude Merritt was imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison during the era of California's criminal-syndicalism...
B
Brian Thomas Mettenbrink
Released
Brian Thomas Mettenbrink is an Anonymous hacktivist who was charged as part of a group who conducted a DDoS at...
R
Robert Middaugh
Released
Robert Middaugh was an anarchist who served a three-year sentence stemming from a clash with police during the...
L
Luther Mincy
Released
Luther Mincy was a CAWIU organizer, one of the eighteen indicted at Sacramento in July 1934 for criminal syndi...
A
Arthur Mini
Released
Arthur Mini was a CAWIU organizer, one of the eighteen indicted at Sacramento in July 1934 for criminal syndic...
N
Norman Mini
Released
Norman Mini was a defendant in the 1935 Sacramento criminal-syndicalism trial of the leaders of the Cannery an...
R
Robert W. Minton
Released
Robert W. Minton, an IWW member from Sacramento, received a five-year prison sentence, which he served in San...
B
Bella Mintz
Released
Bella Mintz was one of the staff of the communist children's summer camp at Yucaipa, California convicted in 1...
M
Mike Miskich
Released
Mike Miskich was a self-identified class-war prisoner writing to the ILD from San Quentin Prison, California i...
Institutions in California
Prisons, jails, and detention centers in California that appear in the census’s case files.
San Quentin State PrisonSan Quentin, California
150 cases
Federal Bureau of Prisons
59 cases
San Quentin Rehabilitation CenterSan Quentin, California
23 cases
Presidio StockadeSan Francisco, California
22 cases
Los Angeles County JailLos Angeles, California
21 cases
Metropolitan Detention Center, Los AngelesLos Angeles, California
14 cases
San Francisco County JailSan Francisco, California
13 cases
Alameda County JailOakland, California
10 cases