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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.

S
S. Sakiyama
Released
S. Sakiyama was named among the political prisoners jailed in Los Angeles in 1932 who sent revolutionary greet...
A
Anthony Salamanca
Anthony Salamanca was an assistant director of the Educational Opportunity Program at San Francisco State Coll...
F
Frank Salas
Released
Frank Salas was a Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union organizer jailed in Riverside, California,...
L
Larry Sales
Released
Larry Sales, then 21 and from Modesto, California, was a U.S. Army soldier and one of the "Presidio 27" — the...
F
Fred Salkind
New Dawn Party member identified in Dragon’s Richmond explosives prosecution report. The defendants pleaded gu...
C
Cesario Salvador
Cesario Salvador, reported as 50 years old and living in Puente, was named among defendants in the Los Angeles...
J
Joseph Samudio
Joseph Samudio was individually named among the four men kept in jail over the Good Friday April 1, 1983 Liver...
D
David Sanchez
David Sanchez, identified in contemporary reporting as Brown Beret organizer, was jailed in the 1968 prosecuti...
P
Patricio Sanchez
Patricio Sanchez, identified as an activist, was one of the East L.A. Thirteen arrested in the 1968 prosecutio...
J
John Sanders
Released
John Sanders, also reported as John Saunders, was an unemployed-workers' activist prosecuted after the June 1,...
E
Edward Sandler
Edward Sandler was named among approximately twenty arrested with William Z. Foster at the Los Angeles Plaza d...
A
Alberto Sandoval
Alberto Sandoval was arrested in Hawthorne, California, on June 8, 2025, during the same immigration-enforceme...
A
Alfred Sandoval
Alfred Sandoval was a California prisoner represented in the March 20, 2012 public petition to the United Nati...
A
Anfree Sapiro
The Daily Worker of March 27, 1935, page 2, names Anfree Sapiro among eight University of California students...
R
Richard Satterfield
Richard Satterfield was a California prisoner represented in the March 20, 2012 public petition to the United...
M
Martha Scarborough
Released
Martha Scarborough was a Los Angeles Catholic Worker who participated in the Ash Wednesday March 5, 2003 block...
F
Fritz K. Schabauer
Fritz K. Schabauer is individually listed in the INS civilian custody roster as confined at Sharp Park Detenti...
G
Gus Schader
Released
Gus Schader was listed in the National Civil Liberties Bureau's March 1919 compilation "War-Time Prosecutions...
B
Ben Schapiro
Released
Ben "Boots" Schapiro joined the August 14, 1932 demonstration demanding freedom for Tom Mooney at the closing...
C
Carl Schilter
Released
Carl Schilter was from Sacramento, California. Carl Schilter began serving a two and a half year prison senten...
J
Jake J. Schmidt
Released
Jake J. Schmidt was a Mennonite Brethren conscientious objector from California imprisoned during World War I....
H
Harry Schneiderman
Released
Harry Schneiderman was listed on the Labor Defender's class-war prisoner honor roll as serving 6 months in the...
L
L. Schneiderman (Los Angeles, 1930)
L. Schneiderman is individually listed in the January 1931 Labor Defender political-prisoner directory under L...
P
Peter Schnell
Released
Peter Schnell, age 21, was charged with attempted arson in 2001 after being found behind Capitola City Hall wi...

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