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Wisconsin

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 Wisconsin.

120Documented
2In custody
112Released
1Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Wisconsin

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

1970s 21 1910s 19 2020s 18 1930s 17 1960s 16 2000s 12

Documented cases

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

E
Eddie Benton-Banai
Released
Edward "Eddie" Benton-Banai was an Ojibwe-Anishinaabe spiritual leader, educator, and co-founder of the Americ...
O
Oscar Bobby
Released
Oscar Bobby was one of the leaders of the 6 March 1930 unemployment demonstration in Milwaukee — a crowd estim...
M
Melany P. Brieno
Released
Melany P. Brieno participated in the April 2026 animal-rights action at Ridglan Farms in Wisconsin. She was de...
C
Caleb A. Brown
Released
Caleb A. Brown, 24, was arrested May 1, 2024 at the UW Madison Palestine encampment after grabbing a Madison p...
P
Paul Brown
Released
Paul Brown (born Samuel Horowitz) was a Communist Party official who changed his name to avoid blacklisting an...
E
Ellen R. Budow
Released
Ellen R. Budow was born in 1952 and became active against the Vietnam War while attending Evanston Township Hi...
F
Fred Burback
Released
Fred Burback was a Milwaukee relief-case defendant framed on perjury after a relief demonstration and sentence...
J
Joe Carl
Released
Joe Carl was one of the leaders of the 6 March 1930 unemployment demonstration in Milwaukee — a crowd estimate...
R
Robert Chevalier
Released
Robert Chevalier was a member of the Menominee Warrior Society and one of the leaders prosecuted after its 197...
K
Katherine Christianson
Released
Katherine Christianson, age 27, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and aiding and abetting in the 2009 ELF-claimed s...
M
Max Cichon
Released
Max Cichon was a farmer near Elkhorn, Wisconsin whose home was besieged during a mid-winter 1933 farm eviction...
B
Booker Collins
Released
Booker T. Collins Jr. was a member of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin chapter of the Black Panther Party, founded in...
M
Michael Cullen
Released
Michael Cullen was a 26-year-old Irish-born director of Casa Maria House of Hospitality, the Milwaukee Catholi...
L
Lea Danielewicz
Released
Lea Danielewicz was a conscientious objector from Wisconsin imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for...
G
Guy Davis
Released
Guy Davis was a conscientious objector from Wisconsin imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refus...
O
Ola Mae Davis
Elderly, blind, diabetic Black woman imprisoned in Wisconsin on perjury and welfare-fraud charges The Black Pa...
S
Sam Day
Released
Anti-nuclear journalist, former editor of The Progressive magazine, and longtime organizer with Nukewatch know...
R
Robert J. Dietrich
Released
Robert J. Dietrich — SOA Watch line-crosser at Fort Benning, Georgia. Convicted of trespass on a military inst...
D
Doreen Dixon
Released
Doreen Dixon was a member of the Menominee Warrior Society and one of the leaders prosecuted after its 1975 ta...
W
Walter Boyd Dumbleton
Released
Walter Boyd Dumbleton was a Jehovah's Witnesses conscientious objector from Wisconsin imprisoned during World...
J
Jerry Ebner
Released
Catholic Worker and Plowshares peace activist arrested for a disarmament action against nuclear weapons system...
A
Aaron Ellringer
Released
Aaron Ellringer, age 35, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for his limited role in the 2009 ELF-claimed sabotage...
B
Benjamin Feifer
Released
Benjamin Feifer was sentenced to ten months for rioting and unlawful assembly in a Milwaukee relief demonstrat...
W
William Felix
Released
William Felix was one of the leaders of the 6 March 1930 unemployment demonstration in Milwaukee — a crowd est...

Institutions in Wisconsin

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

FCI OxfordOxford, Wisconsin
12 cases
Milwaukee House of CorrectionMilwaukee, Wisconsin
11 cases
Dane County JailMadison, Wisconsin
7 cases
Ashland County JailAshland, Wisconsin
5 cases
Dane County Circuit Court
2 cases
Wisconsin state prisonMilwaukee, Wisconsin
2 cases
Wisconsin State PrisonWaupun, Wisconsin
2 cases
U.S. Federal Custom House Jail, MilwaukeeMilwaukee, Wisconsin
1 case