Learn More → State by State
Massachusetts
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 Massachusetts.
351Documented
1In custody
196Released
3Awaiting trial
Eras of repression in Massachusetts
Where Massachusetts’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.
1930s 102
1920s 38
1970s 30
1980s 27
1800s 27
1910s 24
Recent dashboard entries from Massachusetts
The newest published events and reporting located in Massachusetts, updated automatically from the live dashboard.
Prosecution
Judge accused of enabling immigrant to escape ICE gets a rare public reprimand
Arrest
Five arrested during climate protest that blocked traffic in Copley Square
Arrest
Climate protestors block rush hour traffic in downtown Boston
Protest
Protesters demand Charles River Laboratories end beagle testing at its downtown Worcester lab
Arrest
Two arrested plastering anti-ICE posters on a Citizens Bank branch in Boston, part of a campaign over its financing of ICE detention operators
Protest
11 arrested in civil disobedience at Burlington ICE facility
Protest
11 arrested after protesting outside Burlington ICE facility
Protest
Eleven activists arrested trying to deliver care packages to detainees at the Burlington ICE facility
Documented cases
351 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
Robert Morris
Released
Robert Morris was one of the first Black lawyers in the United States, admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 18...
Emadeddin Muntasser
Released
Emadeddin Muntasser was part of an organization that presented itself as a Muslim charity but distributed mate...
William Murdoch
Released
William Murdoch was one of the leaders of the 1928 New Bedford, Massachusetts textile strike, jailed repeatedl...
Bill Murdock
Released
Bill Murdock was an NTWU leader whose skull was fractured by police and who was held for deportation to Scotla...
John L. Murphy
Released
John L. Murphy was a Socialist, a pacifist and an IWW member from Boston, Massachusetts. John L. Murphy was co...
A. J. Muste
Released
A. J. Muste was a clergyman who moved into labour and peace organising, becoming a central advocate of nonviol...
Juanita Morrow Nelson
Released
Juanita Morrow Nelson was a journalist who met Wally Nelson in 1948 while interviewing him in jail as a journa...
Wallace Floyd Nelson
Released
Wallace Floyd Nelson was imprisoned for three and a half years in federal prison as a conscientious objector d...
David Paul O'Brien
Released
On March 31, 1966, David Paul O'Brien and three companions burned their draft cards on the steps of the South...
Peter Oliver
Released
Peter Oliver was a Massachusetts former chief justice. He was individually named in the 1778 Massachusetts Ban...
Rumeysa Ozturk
Released
Rumeysa Öztürk is a Turkish national and PhD student at Tufts University whose F-1 student visa was revoked in...
Joseph Palmer
Released
Joseph Palmer was a reform-minded abolitionist in Massachusetts whose personal nonconformity—especially his re...
Alexis Papali
Released
Alexis Papali is a non-profit employee from Boston, Massachusetts who was arrested on March 5, 2023 at the Atl...
Theodore Parker
Released
Theodore Parker was a Boston abolitionist indicted in connection with the May 26, 1854 storming of the Boston...
Sheila Parks
Released
Sheila Parks was a former college teacher based in Medford, Massachusetts at the time of Trident II Pruning Ho...
Antonio Alves Perreira
Released
Antonio Alves Perreira was one of three Portuguese mill workers and A Luta anarchist editors arrested at Fall...
James Phillips
Released
James Phillips was a seaman from Boston, Massachusetts. James Phillips was convicted at the mass IWW trial in...
Wendell Phillips
Released
Wendell Phillips was a Boston abolitionist indicted in connection with the May 26, 1854 storming of the Boston...
Richard Picariello
Released
Richard Joseph Picariello led the Fred Hampton Unit of the People's Forces, which set off a series of bombings...
Augusto Gonzales Pinto
Released
Augusto Gonzales Pinto was a Portuguese-immigrant leader of the 1928 New Bedford, Massachusetts textile strike...
Eric Rungnar Platin
Released
Eric Rungnar Platin was a conscientious objector from Massachusetts imprisoned during World War I. Court-marti...
John Porter
Released
John Porter was a young vice-president of the New Bedford Textile Workers' Union and a Young Workers League or...
Katherine Ann Power
Released
Katherine Ann Power was a 21-year-old Brandeis University student and Susan Saxes co-defendant in the Septembe...
Stephen Puleo
Released
Stephen Puleo was a Massachusetts Communist activist. In 1928 the Workers (Communist) Party nominated him as o...
Institutions in Massachusetts
Prisons, jails, and detention centers in Massachusetts that appear in the census’s case files.
Fort WarrenBoston, Massachusetts
75 cases
Norfolk County Jail Dedham, Massachusetts
10 cases
Boston Court House
3 cases
Charlestown State PrisonBoston, Massachusetts
2 cases
Deer Island PrisonBoston, Massachusetts
2 cases
Boston JailBoston, Massachusetts
2 cases
Hampshire County Jail (Northampton)Northampton, Massachusetts
1 case
Salem, MA federal jailSalem, Massachusetts
1 case