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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.

J
Junior Roldan
Junior Roldan of Hollywood was taken into federal custody in the prosecution arising from the June 8, 2025 imm...
B
Bernardino Romero
Released
Bernardino Romero was prosecuted for criminal syndicalism in Redwood City, California, after possessing Commun...
A
Annette Roper
Released
Annette Roper was a Black Panther Party member receiving almost daily medical treatment for severe asthma when...
J
James Rorty
Released
James Rorty, a New York Post reporter and Non-Partisan Labor Defense member, was jailed in California’s Imperi...
C
Cameron Rose
Released
Cameron Rose was arrested about a month after a December 2011 confrontation at an Occupy Oakland teepee vigil...
E
Eileen Rose
Released
Eileen Rose was one of eleven-year-old twin sisters arrested on Oakland, California streets for selling the Co...
K
Kathleen Rose
Released
Kathleen Rose was one of eleven-year-old twin sisters arrested on Oakland, California streets for selling the...
R
Rose Rose
Rose Rose was a California Cotton Mills strike picket in Oakland. The August 17, 1936 Western Worker, page 1,...
R
Rosenbaum
Released
Rosenbaum was a metal painter who had worked in San Bernardino, California. In 1934, while out of work, he wen...
B
Bernard Rosenfeld
Released
Bernard Rosenfeld was a Los Angeles political activist arrested with James Turner at an anti-war meeting on Ma...
J
James T. Rowland
Released
James T. Rowland appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’ 1968 lists of imprisoned draft...
W
Walter Rozier
Released
Walter Rozier was a Black Panther Party member in Oakland. Police arrested him in October 1974 after a shootin...
M
Morris Rubin
Released
Morris Rubin was a skilled upholsterer and charter member of the Furniture Workers Union. He lived for seven y...
G
George Ruiz
George Ruiz was a Pelican Bay prisoner and plaintiff in Ashker v. Brown. In an April 30, 2013 sworn declaratio...
P
Pat Runo
Pat Runo was individually named as arrested June 21, 1982 for jaywalking at Livermore Labs and later convicted...
R
Rocky Runyan
Released
Rocky Runyan appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’1969 current-prisoner lists of draft...
A
Alan Rupert
Released
Alan Rupert was a U.S. Army prisoner and one of the Presidio 27. On October 14, 1968, twenty-seven prisoners a...
T
Trina Rupley
Trina Rupley is a U.S. citizen arrested while witnessing a federal immigration operation at a Linda Vista apar...
W
W. Rutherford
Released
W. Rutherford was imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison in the mid-1920s, during the era of California's crim...
G
George Ryan
Released
George Ryan was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) imprisoned at San Quentin, California. H...
P
Pat Ryan
Pat Ryan was identified as a prisoner at San Quentin penitentiary, California, in the December 1923 Industrial...
J
Jitu Sadiki
In a first-person retrospective excerpt, Jitu Sadiki names himself, Dadisi Yero, Zaharibu, Jamani and Zezu amo...
A
Al Safo
Al Safo was named in the June22 LosAngeles dispatch about the previous night’s police raid on an unemployment-...
T
Tokiyio Saisho
Tokiyio Saisho was a California Japanese Labor Union leader from the Garden Grove workers’ camp arrested by de...

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