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Recent deaths of people incarcerated at the Delaney Hall immigration jail in New Jersey have refocused public attention on the facility two months after a hunger strike inside and large protests outside made headlines.

The rotten food, inadequate medical care, and deplorable living conditions at the facility were sure to claim lives and will continue to do so if left unchecked. The debacle deserves to be a national news story, and it’s significant that outlets like The New York Times are covering conditions inside immigration jails. But they shouldn’t stop there.Unbeknownst to most Americans, the alarming conditions inside Delaney Hall and other Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) jails have long been the reality of daily life for nearly 2 million incarcerated people in this country.I’ve been incarcerated in Texas for the past 28 years. During that time, I have witnessed countless examples of unacceptable human suffering. People have committed suicide to escape it. I have stood by helplessly while men died from medical neglect. Contaminated food and water have made me ill more times than I can recall.

I have stood by helplessly while men died from medical neglect. Contaminated food and water have made me ill more times than I can recall.

I have stood by helplessly while men died from medical neglect. Contaminated food and water have made me ill more times than I can recall.

Delaney Hall is not an anomaly. These hardships are representative of a nationwide crisis. It is a systemic failure that demands national attention — a culture that has been constructed and maintained over decades, one that permits incarcerated people to be treated in ways that fall disturbingly below the threshold of basic human decency.“This isn’t Holiday Inn,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin recently told Fox News about Delaney Hall. “Inside, we are detaining the worst of the worst.”It is precisely this kind of misleading rhetoric that has shielded government officials from accountability. Convincing the public that incarcerated people are less than human and therefore deserving of animalistic treatment has become a........

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