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Washington

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 Washington.

404Documented
2In custody
321Released
2Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Washington

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

1910s 155 1970s 38 2000s 28 1960s 28 2020s 25 1980s 25

Documented cases

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

Frank Stewart
Released
Frank Stewart was one of the 74 Industrial Workers of the World members held in the Snohomish County jail and...
Roman Storm
Awaiting Trial
Roman Storm is a Russian-American software developer from Auburn, Washington, and a co-founder of Tornado Cash...
Benjamin Theodore Stuckart
Released
Benjamin Theodore Stuckart was one of nine people federally arrested on July 15, 2025 over the June 11 protest...
H. T.Cheetman
Released
H. T.Cheetman was one of the 74 Industrial Workers of the World members held in the Snohomish County jail and...
Jan David Tissot
Jan David Tissot was one of three defendants jailed in the 1970 Seattle post-office bombing prosecution. The B...
Placido Torres
Released
Placido Torres was given a prison sentence of two years and served in McNeil Island Penitentiary from April 24...
Ponce Torres
Released
Ponce M. Torres was an executive-board member of the Filipino cannery workers’ union, later ILWU Local 37. Imm...
Tom Tracy
Released
Tom Tracy was one of the 74 Industrial Workers of the World members held in the Snohomish County jail and char...
John I. Turner
Released
John I. Turner was a lumberjack and an organizer and a delegate for the Lumber Workers Industrial Union, Local...
John Ujich
Released
John Ujich was a Tacoma labor and unemployed-workers activist who fought deportation to fascist Italy. He had...
John Edward Van Veenendaal
John Edward Van Veenendaal was one of three defendants jailed in the 1970 Seattle post-office bombing prosecut...
Bill Wahl
Released
Bill Wahl was a physician and anti-nuclear activist associated with Ground Zero Center. Glen Milner recalled h...
Kim Wahl
Released
Kim Wahl was a peace activist jailed following a protest at Boeing against the murders of Jesuits in El Salvad...
Lowell Alvin Wakefield
Released
Lowell Alvin Wakefield was a Washington labor journalist and the International Labor Defense’s first Southern...
Yvonne Wanrow
Released
Yvonne Wanrow, also known as Yvonne Swan, is a Colville Native American woman prosecuted in Spokane after she...
Ken Ward
Released
Climate activist and one of the five "Valve Turners" who on October 11, 2016 simultaneously shut off emergency...
Lois de Lafayette Washburn
Released
Lois de Lafayette Washburn was an antisemitic pamphleteer active in Chicago and the Puget Sound region. She he...
Briana Waters
Released
Briana Waters is an environmental activist whose case became closely associated with prosecutions linked to th...
F. O. Watson
Released
F. O. Watson was one of the 74 Industrial Workers of the World members held in the Snohomish County jail and c...
Hulet M. Wells
Released
Hulet M. Wells was from Seattle, Washington. Hulet M. Wells was tried jointly with Joseph Pass and sentenced o...
Piper Werle
Released
Piper Werle, age 29, of Port Orchard WA, Greenpeace 28 - September 2019 Houston Ship Channel bridge rappel.
Morris White
Released
Morris White was a Seattle Black Panther Party member who helped operate the Free Breakfast Program and sold t...
Bernie Whitebear
Released
Bernie Whitebear (born Bernard Reyes, 1937–2000), a Colville (Sinixt) activist, was a central leader of Seattl...
James Whiteford
Released
James Whiteford was one of the 74 Industrial Workers of the World members held in the Snohomish County jail an...

Institutions in Washington

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

Snohomish County JailEverett, Washington
75 cases
McNeil Island Federal PenitentiarySteilacoom, Washington
67 cases
USP McNeil IslandSteilacoom, Washington
43 cases
Washington State PenitentiaryWalla Walla, Washington
13 cases
SeaTac Federal Detention CenterSeaTac, Washington
9 cases
Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla / U.S. District Court, W.D. WashingtonWalla Walla, Washington
8 cases
US Forest Service, Sullivan LakeMetaline Falls, Washington
7 cases
Washington State Penitentiary at Walla WallaWalla Walla, Washington
5 cases