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Pennsylvania

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 Pennsylvania.

836Documented
12In custody
544Released
4Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Pennsylvania

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

1930s 257 1700s 79 1910s 76 1920s 72 1960s 69 1800s 59

Documented cases

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

W
William Patterson (Pittsburgh speaker, 1932)
WilliamPatterson was arrested for speaking at an anti-Dies-Fish deportation-bill demonstration in Pittsburgh....
R
Randolph Gaston Payne
Released
Randolph Gaston Payne was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-mart...
L
Lester Peay
Released
Lester Peay was a picket in the 1950 New Kensington clothing-store dispute. He served ten months in the result...
F
Freniando Pecirello
The October 1932 Labor Defender prison roster identifies Freniando Pecirello among coal-strike prisoners actua...
M
Michael Pehulic
Michael Pehulic was a miner imprisoned at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania for activity in the 1921 miners' strike. Th...
I
Israel Pemberton
Released
Israel Pemberton was a Philadelphia Quaker also known as Israel Pemberton Jr. He was a wealthy Philadelphia me...
J
John Pemberton
Released
John Pemberton was a Quaker minister and younger brother of Israel and James Pemberton. He was one of the "Vir...
S
Steve Perlich
Released
Steve Perlich was a member of the National Miners Union in western Pennsylvania who distributed union leaflets...
J
Jamar Perry
Defenestrator individually named these SCI Camp Hill Special Management Unit prisoners in its report of Januar...
P
Paul Peters
Paul Peters was identified as a playwright and reporter working for Fortune and Time in a July 9, 1936 McKeesp...
C
Clarence Peterson (Philadelphia Black Panther)
Clarence Peterson was a Philadelphia Black Panther Party lieutenant of finance, arrested at gunpoint at about1...
G
George Pewkitis
George Pewkitis was a National Miners Union member arrested at South Wilkes-Barre Colliery for distributing le...
R
Robert Philson
Released
Robert Philson was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the...
T
Thomas Pike
Released
Thomas Pike was a Philadelphia dancing and fencing master. He was one of the citizens arrested in the Septembe...
P
P. Pizor
P. Pizor was a National Textile Workers Union member arrested at a Philadelphia waterfront meeting organized b...
H
H. Plotnick
H. Plotnick was a Young Communist League member arrested at a Philadelphia waterfront meeting organized by the...
S
Sylvan Pollack
Released
Sylvan Pollack was a labor organizer arrested during July 1930 raids associated with the Pennsylvania anthraci...
D
Douglas Pope
Released
Douglas Pope was listed among imprisoned draft and conscientious resisters in contemporary CCCO reports from 1...
V
Vasa Popovich
Vasa Popovich was one of the foreign-born workers identified as jailed pending deportation in an International...
R
Robert Porter
Released
Robert Porter was a captain and one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvani...
J
Joseph Posey
Released
Joseph Posey was among the western Pennsylvania men taken into federal custody during the suppression of the W...
J
John Powers
Released
John Powers was a major and one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania an...
A
Albert B. Prashner
Released
Albert B. Prashner was from Scran ton, Pennsylvania. Albert B. Prashner was convicted at the mass IWW trial in...
H
Helen Prescelic
Released
Helen Prescelic was listed on the ILD's 1932 winter-relief roster of Western Pennsylvania class-war prisoners...

Institutions in Pennsylvania

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

Fort MifflinPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
48 cases
Allegheny County WorkhouseBlawnox, Pennsylvania
34 cases
Walnut Street JailPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
20 cases
Philadelphia GaolPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
18 cases
United States Penitentiary, LewisburgLewisburg, Pennsylvania
14 cases
Butler County PrisonButler, Pennsylvania
11 cases
FCI AllenwoodWhite Deer, Pennsylvania
10 cases
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas / SCI Pennsylvania state prisonsPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
9 cases