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New York

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 New York.

2,078Documented
40In custody
1,023Released
12Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in New York

Where New York’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.

1930s 714 1940s 176 1970s 171 1920s 166 1910s 166 1950s 159

Documented cases

2,078 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.

Alejandro Palacios Rengifo
Released
Alejandro Palacios Rengifo, known as El Gato or Yimi, was abducted and forcibly recruited into the FARC at age...
Michael Palumbo
Released
Michael Palumbo was a New York anti-fascist who attended a Khaki Shirts rally in Astoria on July 14, 1933 with...
Frank Panopoulos
Released
Frank Panopoulos has worked on peace and social justice issues since 1979. During the 1980s he lived in the Co...
Mary Patten
Released
Mary Patten is an artist and activist associated with the Madame Binh Graphics Collective. She was imprisoned...
William L. Patterson
Released
William L. Patterson was the Black executive secretary of the Civil Rights Congress and author of the petition...
Colette Pean
Released
Colette Pean was one of the New York 8+, a group of Black activists arrested in coordinated FBI and New York C...
James Peck
Released
James "Jim" Peck was a New York-born pacifist, civil rights activist, and journalist. As a WWII conscientious...
Margo Pelletier
Released
Margo Pelletier was an artist and filmmaker imprisoned at Rikers Island following the Kennedy Airport anti-apa...
Irving Peress
Released
Irving Peress was an Army dentist whom Senator Joseph McCarthy made the center of the 1954 “Who promoted Peres...
Charles Pernasilice
Released
Catawba prisoner at Attica Correctional Facility at the time of the September 1971 uprising. Indicted with Joh...
Pettis Perry
Released
Pettis Perry was the highest-ranking Black member of the Communist Party USA at the time of his Smith Act pros...
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips was an Attica prisoner prosecuted over the September 1971 prison rebellion. Attica News ident...
Yamit Picon-Rodriguez
Released
Yamit Picon-Rodriguez, age 36, ELN member; detained in September 2020 in connection with a 20-year ELN cocaine...
Semaj Pigram
Released
Weapon possession (loaded stolen handgun) in the Buffalo protest SUV incident, June 2020. Sentence: 7 years st...
Viola Plummer
Released
Viola Plummer was a Black liberation organizer and co-founder of the December 12th Movement, charged as a New...
Charles Plunkett
Released
Charles Plunkett was a young anarchist in the Ferrer Center / Modern School circle in New York and a member of...
Henry Pollack
Released
Henry Pollack was a conscientious objector from New York imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for re...
Frank Pommersheim
Released
Frank Pommersheim, born 1943 in Queens, New York, graduated from Colgate University in 1965 and Columbia Law S...
Martin Popper
Released
Martin Popper was a New York attorney and former secretary of the National Lawyers Guild, found guilty in 1961...
Curtis Powell
Released
Dr. Curtis Powell was an Oxford-trained biochemist and Black Panther Party member indicted as one of the New Y...
Michael Quill
Released
Michael J. Quill was president of the Transport Workers Union. A Brooklyn grand jury indicted him on three cri...
Abdul Haqq
Released
New Afrikan political prisoner first held at Rikers Island and later in New York State custody under NYSDOCS #...
Harry Raymond
Released
Harry Raymond was a seaman and member of the Marine Workers Industrial Union. He was one of five delegates cho...
Rosemary Reilly
Released
Age 22 at indictment; from Brightwaters, Long Island, graduate of the Academy of Saint Joseph who attended New...

Institutions in New York

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

Ellis Island Immigration StationNew York, New York
215 cases
Fort LafayetteNew York, New York
202 cases
Manhattan House of Detention (the Tombs)New York, New York
21 cases
Attica Correctional FacilityAttica, New York
20 cases
Sing Sing Correctional FacilityOssining, New York
15 cases
Ellis IslandNew York, New York
15 cases
Metropolitan Correctional CenterNew York, New York
10 cases
MDC BrooklynBrooklyn, New York
9 cases