For years Pennsylvania has been filling prisons to overcrowding faster than they can build new ones.

JOHN AFRICA's analysis is borne out in the fact that by the 1990's, prison construction had become the largest growth industry in the country. The U.S. government maintains its facade of being a "free" society by denying the existence of any U.S. political prisoners, despite numerous Black Panthers, Native American leaders, Puerto Rican independence fighters and other political activists imprisoned for their beliefs and associations. In attempts to break them, these officially unacknowledged political prisoners are commonly subject to intensified harassment and torture.

At prison locations in the remote areas of Pennsylvania, MOVE members have endured years of repeated physical and mental abuse. Delbert, Carlos and Chuck Africa were kept in solitary confinement for over six years for refusing to violate MOVE belief by cutting their hair. MOVE women Janet, Janine, Merle, Debbie, Consuewella, Sue and Alberta Africa upheld their religious belief by refusing to give blood samples and were repeatedly put in solitary confinement, sometimes for as long as three years. Sadistic prison guards were delighted to inform Delbert, Janet, Sue, Phil, Janine and Consuewella Africa that their children were killed in the police assault on May 13, 1985.

The MOVE family stays in close contact through letters and as many visits and phone calls as the prisons allow. This takes a considerable amount of time and money as inmates must make collect calls and most of the prisons are a long day's drive from Philadelphia.