Skip to content
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.

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.

C
Claudine Tiesler
Claudine Tiesler is individually listed in the INS civilian custody roster as confined at Sharp Park Detention...
M
Micah Tillmon
Released
Micah Tillmon is a West Hills, California man who was 19 years old when he was sentenced to 18 months in feder...
B
B. Toboado
Released
B. Toboado was arrested in Los Angeles on November 22, 1927, on a criminal-syndicalism accusation for selling...
E
Erich Toppel
Erich Toppel is individually listed in the INS civilian custody roster as confined at Sharp Park Detention Cam...
J
Jorge Torres
Released
Jorge Torres was a Spanish freelance videographer jailed while documenting Greenpeace’s 2001 Vandenberg anti-m...
F
Frank Travis
Released
Frank Travis was arrested in California and jailed awaiting trial in the Sacramento IWW case. He was held in t...
A
Amanda Trebach
Amanda Trebach, a registered nurse, was arrested on August 7, 2025, while participating in a Harbor Area Peace...
E
Ernest Triefenstein
Released
Ernest Triefenstein was a U.S. Army prisoner and one of the Presidio 27. On October 14, 1968, twenty-seven pri...
D
Danny Troxell
Danny Troxell was a Pelican Bay prisoner, 2011 hunger-strike participant and plaintiff in Ashker v. Brown. In...
F
Federico Tschischke
Federico Tschischke is individually listed in the INS civilian custody roster as confined at Sharp Park Detent...
H
Herbert Tucker
Released
Herbert Tucker, identified as Herbert (4X) Tucker, was a Nation of Islam member detained following a January 2...
S
Samuel Reynier Tyson
Released
Samuel Reynier Tyson was a California Quaker, farmer and peace organizer associated with the Committee for Non...
U
Ulibarri
Released
Ulibarri was a young Partido Liberal Mexicano-associated defendant jailed in the same Los Angeles libel prosec...
B
Bill Unger
Bill Unger was a Vietnam veteran associated with Vietnam Veterans Against the War who was jailed during an ear...
J
Joe Varela
Released
Joe Varela was imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison during the era of California's criminal-syndicalism pros...
T
Tomas Varela
Tomas Varela was an East Los Angeles College student and La Vida Nueva editor named among the ten defendants i...
L
Lawrence Varella
Lawrence Varella was arrested in San Francisco during police raids on radical meeting places in the July 1934...
J
Joe Vargo
Released
Joe Vargo was imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison during the era of California's criminal-syndicalism prose...
A
Alexandras Raudon Varis
Alexandras Raudon Varis is individually listed in the INS civilian custody roster as confined at Sharp Park De...
W
William Velarde
William Velarde was identified as permanent strike chairman of the Confederation of Mexican Unions during the...
A
Andrea Guadalupe Velez
Andrea Guadalupe Velez, a shoe-company production coordinator, was arrested near her workplace in Los Angeles...
A
Anthony Victoria
Released
Anthony Victoria appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’ 1968 lists of imprisoned draft...
R
Richard Vigil
Richard Vigil, identified as an activist, was one of the East L.A. Thirteen arrested in the 1968 prosecution o...
J
John Vilarino
Released
John Vilarino was born in La Coruña, Spain, on January 1, 1885, and first came to the United States in 1903. A...

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