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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
Recent dashboard entries from Pennsylvania
The newest published events and reporting located in Pennsylvania, updated automatically from the live dashboard.
Protest
About 100 protesters rally at Philadelphia City Hall for a data-center moratorium
Arrest
Five protesters arrested for failure to disperse after an attempted flag burning at Philadelphia's July Fourth celebrations
Arrest
Former Pennsylvania state representative Todd Eachus arrested after removal from an Amazon data-center hearing
Prosecution
Former Delco woman tied to the Zizians extremist group charged with her parents' murder
Prosecution
Expelled Pitt student in limbo ahead of Gaza encampment trial
Prosecution
Swarthmore 9 protesters urge Delco DA to drop trespassing case tied to pro-Palestinian encampment
Other
Police tracked anti-data-center speech as extremism
Protest
Southwest Philadelphia residents rally to save 925 affordable-housing units
Documented cases
836 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
Ben Fletcher
Released
Ben Fletcher was the most prominent African American organizer in the Industrial Workers of the World and a le...
Keith Forsyth
Released
Keith Forsyth, from Marion, Ohio, was the Camden group's skilled lock picker, twenty-two at the indictment. He...
T-Jay Fry
Released
T-Jay Fry was arrested in connection with Lancaster’s September 2020 racial-justice protest. A September 17 re...
Joseph Galloway
Released
Joseph Galloway was an opponent of American independence and administered police and port affairs for the Brit...
Reuel Mugo Gatheru
Released
Reuel Mugo Gatheru was a Kenyan student at Lincoln University and an anti-colonial writer. An immigration offi...
Lewis J. Gergotz
Released
Lewis J. Gergotz was a conscientious objector from Pennsylvania imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed...
Leon Gilbert
Released
Lieutenant Leon A. Gilbert was a Black officer of the segregated 24th Infantry Regiment court-martialed in Kor...
Ralph Ginzburg
Released
Ralph Ginzburg was an Avant Garde writer and magazine publisher who famously published a documented collection...
Harry Gold
Released
Harry Gold was a Philadelphia industrial chemist who began passing Soviet intelligence economic and chemical s...
Joe Graber
Released
Joe Graber was from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Joe Graber was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chicago, sen...
Castner Hanway
Released
Castner Hanway was a Defendant in the federal treason prosecution following the September 11, 1851 Christiana...
Mary Donovan Hapgood
Released
Mary Donovan Hapgood was a labor activist who had been a leading figure in the Sacco-Vanzetti defense. Mary Do...
Powers Hapgood
Released
Powers Hapgood was a Harvard-educated coal miner, Socialist and labor organizer, who was arrested and jailed n...
Carolyn Hart
Released
Carolyn Hart was prosecuted after an anti-war demonstration in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, on September 1, 1934....
Herbert Hawkins
Released
Herbert Hawkins was a Philadelphia Black Panther and Vietnam veteran. Police arrested him at the Party’s Mantu...
Albert Hazlett
Released
Albert Hazlett was a Pennsylvania-born veteran of Brown's Kansas militia who escaped Harpers Ferry but was cap...
Rolando Montae Hearn
Released
Rolando "Montae" Hearn coordinated Philadelphia Panther breakfast work and was jailed in a robbery prosecution...
Maurice Hess
Released
Maurice Hess was a young Dunkard (Old Order German Baptist Brethren) schoolteacher from Pennsylvania. Maurice...
Patrick Hester
Released
Patrick Hester was convicted of the October 17, 1868 murder of mining superintendent Alexander Rea near Centra...
Edgar Hoover
Released
Edgar Hoover was from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Edgar Hoover was sentenced to three years in prison. He served...
David Japenga
Released
Convicted of four misdemeanors and a felony for breaking windows at Citizens Bank, Irish Design Center, and Qu...
Donald Mark Johnson
Released
Donald Mark Johnson, 33, was arrested June 26, 2024 at the University of Pittsburgh Gaza divestment protest fo...
Barry Jones III
Released
Barry Jones III was detained after Lancaster’s September 2020 protest following Ricardo Muñoz’s death. He left...
Christopher Columbus Jones
Released
Christopher Columbus Jones was a Philadelphia carpenter and Greenback-Labor activist who led the small Philade...
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