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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.

859Documented
24In custody
787Released
2Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in New York

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

1950s 137 1910s 137 1970s 87 1960s 87 1980s 81 1930s 65

Documented cases

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

M
Marcia Silver
Released
Marcia Silver was a striker with Local 1250 of the Department Store Employees Union in the December 1935 strik...
I
Israel Simon
Released
Israel Simon was a needle-trades organizer framed on an assault charge during union organizing and given an in...
M
Marcus Singer
Released
Marcus Singer was a Cornell University zoologist indicted for contempt of Congress — at the same time as John...
J
Jerome Singleton
A 30-year-old Black student in New York City accused of slashing an undercover 'decoy' policeman; The Black Pa...
G
George Siskind
Released
George Siskind, a Polish-born writer and teacher, was among the first people ordered deported under the McCarr...
B
Boris Sklar
Released
Boris Sklar was the editor of the Russian-language paper Russky Golos, arrested for deportation as an alleged...
O
Olava Skottedal
Released
Olava Skottedal was arrested in Babylon, Long Island in 1951 for distributing the National Guardian and an Ame...
A
A.H. Smith
Released
A.H. Smith was a conscientious objector from New York imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refus...
F
Frank Smith
Released
Frank "Big Black" Smith was an inmate at New York's Attica prison who served as head of security in the exerci...
T
Tyronne Smith
Tyronne Smith was a New York Black Panther member arrested with Joudon Ford at Kennedy Airport on January 24,...
W
Willie E. Smith
Released
Willie E. Smith was the defendant in the first of the Attica Brothers cases to reach trial — the prosecutions...
A
Andrew Smulian
Released
Andrew Smulian, age 67, a South African pilot, was the cooperating co-conspirator who helped DEA agents charge...
N
Nachimuthu Socrates
Released
Socrates, Murugesu Vinayagamoorthy, Vijayshanthar Patpanathan, Gaspar Raj Maria Paulian, Namasivaya Viswanatha...
J
John Soderberg
Released
John Soderberg was a marine worker framed in New York in 1932 on a charge of "placing explosives in a vessel w...
A
Alex Sologub
Released
Alex Sologub was a conscientious objector from New York imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for ref...
R
Raymond Soto Dávila
Released
Raymond Soto Dávila is a Puerto Rican independence activist and historian associated with CUCRE and the Liga S...
C
Carlos Soule Echeverria
Released
Carlos Soule Echeverria was a Spanish Loyalist volunteer arrested for deportation to Franco's Spain and held a...
O
Ormistan Spencer
Rosedale, Queens man arrested and charged with reckless endangerment and weapons offenses after defending his...
G
Gerard Spiegler
Released
Gerard Spiegler was jailed for the March 1969 Stony Brook University library protest against university war re...
R
Richard J. Spitz
Released
Richard J. Spitz was jailed for the March 1969 Stony Brook University library protest against university war r...
H
Howard Spragg
Released
One of the eight Union Theological Seminary students known as the "Union Eight" who, on October 16, 1940, the...
D
Daniel W. Squires
Released
Daniel W. Squires was a Delaware County, New York tenant farmer imprisoned after the August 7, 1845 killing of...
E
Eleanor E. Stein
Released
Daughter of New Deal economist Arthur Stein and civil-rights organizer Annie Stein. Joined Weatherman summer 1...
A
Audrey Stewart
Released
Audrey Stewart painted anti-Iraq-war messages on the Syracuse federal building during Operation Desert Fox (De...

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
184 cases
Manhattan House of Detention (the Tombs)New York, New York
17 cases
Sing Sing Correctional FacilityOssining, New York
14 cases
Attica Correctional FacilityAttica, New York
13 cases
Metropolitan Correctional CenterNew York, New York
11 cases
MDC BrooklynBrooklyn, New York
9 cases
Metropolitan Correctional Center, New YorkNew York, New York
9 cases
Blackwell's Island PenitentiaryNew York, New York
8 cases