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Colorado

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 Colorado.

161Documented
5In custody
101Released

Eras of repression in Colorado

Where Colorado’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.

1980s 30 1930s 26 1950s 20 1910s 11 2010s 10 1970s 10

Documented cases

161 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.

David Michael Ansberry
In Custody
David Michael Ansberry, a veteran of Colorado’s STP counterculture community, placed a radio-controlled explos...
Eric Brandt
In Custody
Eric Patrick Brandt, age 49, an anti-government Denver protester, was arrested December 26, 2019 for posting t...
Ricardo Palmera
In Custody
Simon Trinidad was a long-time leader in mass movements for social change in Colombia, and is a top negotiator...
Tina Peters
In Custody
Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk, was convicted in Colorado of crimes arising from a breach of county...
Mohamed Sabry Soliman
In Custody
Mohamed Sabry Soliman was arrested on June 1, 2025 after attacking a Boulder demonstration supporting Israeli...
George Bardwell
Page 3 individually identifies George Bardwell in the front/rear-row caption of the Denver-Arapahoe relief-str...
Grant Barnes
Released
Grant Barnes is an environmentalist who was arrested in 2007 for setting fire to a number of SUV’s in Denver,...
Henry Barrie
Page 3 individually identifies Henry Barrie in the front/rear-row caption of the Denver-Arapahoe relief-strike...
Pearl Bartlett
Released
Pearl Bartlett participated in the Denver and Arapahoe County relief workers’ strike against relief cuts and l...
Anna Bary
Released
Anna Bary was a Denver Communist and Mexican-rights activist arrested under the Smith Act in August 1954 durin...
Sara Beining
Released
Sara G. Beining is an Iraq War veteran and former U.S. Army intelligence analyst who joined Iraq Veterans Agai...
Cameron Bishop
Released
Cameron David Bishop was an anti-war radical associated with Students for a Democratic Society who became, in...
Patricia Blau
Released
Patricia Blau was a Denver Communist arrested under the Smith Act in August 1954 during the McCarthy era. She...
Henry Brown (Denver FERA striker)
Released
Henry Brown was a Denver Federal Emergency Relief Administration striker and father of eight children. The Dai...
Jose Calderon
Released
Jose Calderon was a Northern Colorado community activist and Communist Workers Party spokesperson jailed after...
Samuel R. Caldwell
Released
Samuel R. Caldwell was a Denver laborer and one of the first people imprisoned under the Marihuana Tax Act of...
Oliver Sachio Coe
Released
Oliver Sachio Coe participated in the same August 1998 Colorado missile-site action as Daniel Sicken, joining...
Christopher J. Cordova
Released
Christopher J. Cordova is a Colorado civil-liberties activist and First Amendment auditor who publishes as Den...
Gene Corish
Released
Gene Corish was a Denver relief-strike defendant arrested and jailed after police attacked a Federal Emergency...
Theresa Cusimano
Released
Theresa Cusimano is a Denver, Colorado-based Catholic Worker and longtime peace activist who has been arrested...
Irving Dichter
Released
Irving Dichter was a leader of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers prosecuted in the fed...
William Dietrich
William Dietrich, Communist candidate for the Colorado legislature, was individually identified among relief s...
Perley Doe
Released
Perley Doe was from Denver, Colorado. Perley Doe began serving his sentence on January 11, 1918.
Graham Dolan
Released
Graham Dolan was the publicity director of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. He plead...

Institutions in Colorado

Prisons, jails, and detention centers in Colorado that appear in the census’s case files.

FDC EnglewoodLittleton, Colorado
4 cases
Jefferson County Jail
4 cases
Las Animas County Jail
4 cases
ADX FlorenceFlorence, Colorado
3 cases
Colorado State PenitentiaryCañon City, Colorado
3 cases
Mount San Rafael Hospital / Trinidad jail (militia custody)Trinidad, Colorado
1 case
Denver County JailDenver, Colorado
1 case
Colorado Department of Corrections
1 case