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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.

K
Kitty Preselac
Kitty Preselac was a labor prisoner held in the Allegheny County Workhouse at Blawnox after the 1931 coal stri...
H
Helen Preselic
The November 24, 1931 report individually lists this National Miners Union strike prisoner at Allegheny County...
T
Theresa Presillac
Released
Theresa Presillac was a militant picket-line leader at Wildwood serving two years at the Blawnox Workhouse, on...
R
Richard Price (Philadelphia garage worker)
Richard Price had worked for twelve years in a Fitzwater Street garage. A July 11 worker’s account says police...
J
John Prince
Released
John Prince appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’1969 current-prisoner lists of draft...
J
Jacobus Quigg
Released
Jacobus Quigg was named in the later exile records as one of the men sent to Virginia with the Philadelphia pr...
T
Thomas Quinn
Released
Thomas Quinn was a field representative of the United Electrical Workers cited for contempt of Congress after...
J
John Rasefske
John Rasefske was arrested with organizer Joe Murphy in a police raid on a National Miners Union committee mee...
A
Anna Rasefsky
Released
Anna Rasefsky was a miner's wife jailed at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania in the strike during the National Miners'...
M
Mary Rasefsky (sixteen-year-old strike defendant)
The April1933 WorkingWoman strike history names sixteen-year-old Mary Rasefsky and her nineteen-year-old siste...
S
Stephen Reid
Released
Stephen Reid appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’ 1968 lists of imprisoned draft and...
J
John Reider
Marshall names John Reider in his list of people arrested and confined from Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. T...
J
Joseph Renalovich
Joseph Renalovich was an immigration detainee actually held in Allegheny County jail in 1933. The June 15 Dail...
A
Anita Ricci
Released
Anita Ricci, a Philadelphia native, was twenty-two at the Camden 28 indictment. She had graduated near the top...
T
Theodore Richards
Theodore Richards, also called Ted Richards in the same issue, was prosecuted for inciting to riot in an April...
J
Jason Robbins
Released
Jason Robbins, 30, ARA/Antifa member; LOVE Park 4 co-defendant in the July 23, 2007 FBI SUV damage. Convicted...
J
Joseph Roberts
Released
Joseph Roberts was one of nine Communist Party organizers prosecuted in the Philadelphia Smith Act case. He wa...
J
James Robinson
Released
James Robinson was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and marched...
J
John E. Robinson
Released
Marshall identifies Robinson as a Philadelphian arrested at Sandusky, Ohio on September 20, 1864, apparently o...
M
Mansfield Robinson
Mansfield Robinson was one of three unemployed workers arrested after deputies attacked participants in a May...
W
Willie Robinson
Defenestrator individually named these SCI Camp Hill Special Management Unit prisoners in its report of Januar...
W
William Rodan
Released
William Rodan was named in the later exile records as one of the men sent to Virginia with the Philadelphia pr...
T
Thomas Whitney Rodd
Released
Thomas Whitney Rodd was a pacifist who refused draft registration and protested the Vietnam War. After an init...
J
Joe Romango
Joe Romango was an Unemployment Council participant arrested during the police raid on a relief delegation at...

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