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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.

Norman Edgar Lowry Jr.
Released
Norman Edgar Lowry Jr. is a Pennsylvania peace activist and former urban-ministry chaplain who repeatedly prot...
Josephine Kaczor
Released
Josephine Kaczor was a labor organizer and Brookwood Labor College graduate involved in the 1929–1930 hosiery...
William Kantor
Released
William Kantor was drafted in 1917 and imprisoned as a conscientious objector at Fort Leavenworth and Alcatraz...
John Kehoe
Released
John Kehoe was a Girardville tavern-keeper and county delegate of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. John Kehoe...
Edward J. Kelly
Released
Edward J. Kelly was convicted of the September 3, 1875 murder of mine superintendent John P. Jones and hanged...
Robert Klonsky
Released
Robert Klonsky was a Communist Party organizer and union figure who served as organizational secretary for the...
Steve Kurepa
Released
Steve Kurepa was secretary of a United Mine Workers local at Harwick, Pennsylvania. He attended a Sacco-Vanzet...
Sherman Labovitz
Released
Sherman Labovitz was a Communist Party defendant indicted and arrested in Philadelphia in 1953 under the Smith...
George Lakey
Released
George Lakey is a Quaker activist, writer and educator in nonviolent action. During the 1963 civil-rights camp...
Wayne Paul Lauser
Released
Wayne Paul Lauser was a Quaker conscientious objector who left compulsory hospital service and walked from Cle...
Jack Law
Released
Jack Law was a machinist from Boston, Pennsylvania. Jack Law was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chicago, s...
Israel Lazar
Released
Israel Lazar, also known as Bill Lawrence and later William Lazar or Bill Lazarre, was a Communist Party organ...
Celeste Legere
Awaiting Trial
Worcester, Massachusetts anarchist arrested October 19, 2024 with her partner Cara Mitrano for the alleged rel...
Da'Jon Lengyel
Released
Da'Jon Lengyel, 22, and Christopher Alan West damaged and destroyed by fire a Pittsburgh police vehicle and da...
Elijah Lewis
Released
Elijah Lewis was a Defendant in the federal treason prosecution following the September 11, 1851 Christiana Re...
Spencer Bernard Liberto
Released
Activist from Pennsylvania arrested January 18, 2023 during law enforcement raids on the Weelaunee forest in A...
Jessica Lopez
Released
Jessica Lopez is a Lancaster, Pennsylvania woman convicted by jury of riot and criminal conspiracy for her rol...
Walter Lowenfels
Released
Walter Lowenfels was a poet and journalist whose activism was tightly linked to labor and anti-racist politics...
Nicholas Lucia
Released
Nicholas Lucia, 25, of Pittsburgh, PA was charged with obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder. O...
Elmer Maas
Released
Elmer Maas was a musician, music teacher, and Catholic peace activist who joined the Plowshares Eight at the G...
Matthew Ernest Macar
Released
Activist from Pennsylvania arrested January 18, 2023 during law enforcement raids on the Weelaunee forest in A...
Elliot Madison
Released
Elliot “Smokey” Madison is a former social worker and member of the anarchist collective Curious George Brigad...
Luther Manning
Released
Luther Manning was a Lincoln University student arrested in Oxford, Pennsylvania on January 11, 1950 after he...
Hugh McGehan
Released
Hugh McGehan was convicted of the July 6, 1875 murder of Tamaqua policeman Benjamin F. Yost and hanged at Pott...

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