I’ve Seen Prison Conditions Kill. That’s What’s Happening at Delaney Hall.

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.

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 political “get out of jail free card.”

In reality, the vast majority of those held in U.S. jails, prisons, and detention centers are not accused of major violence. Many are people struggling with poverty, untreated mental illness, or substance use disorders. Others are mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters who fled their native countries in search of a better life in the United States.

According to the Cato Institute, individuals listed on the government’s “worst of the worst” website — which catalogs the criminal records of detained immigrants in an effort to whip up public support for mass deportations — accounted for just 4 percent of the total ICE arrests in 2025.

Regardless of why someone ends up in a U.S. lockup, cruel and unusual treatment should never be acceptable.

Reports that detainees at Delaney Hall were served rotten food contaminated with mold and worms mirror complaints from other ICE facilities.

British journalist Sami Hamdi, who was held for several weeks in an ICE jail in California, reported that the food repeatedly made him sick. Doctoral candidate Rümeysa Öztürk reported that the food she consumed while detained at an ICE facility in Louisiana caused persistent digestive issues and stomach pain. A lawyer for TikTok journalist Carlitos Ricardo Parias, who has been detained at an ICE facility in California for nearly 300 days, recently shared a video of the organisms swimming around in his client’s drinking water.

The country also heard the story of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, whose family described his severe stomach problems after eating food at the Dilley ICE jail in Texas, where worms were reportedly found in vegetables.

Incarcerated people in state prisons often face similar conditions.

A 2023 lawsuit filed by men incarcerated at the French Robertson Unit, a state prison in Abilene, Texas, alleged that the food and water provided by prison officials were unsanitary, contaminated, and nutritionally inadequate. The complaint stated that food preparation areas were infested with roaches and mice, while the drinking water was contaminated with polyfluoroalkyl substances and nanoplastics.

U.S. Sen. Andy Kim (D-New Jersey) reported witnessing a chaotic medical system after visiting Delaney Hall. He recounted the story of a woman with Stage 3 cancer who was not receiving treatment.

Kim concluded that numerous issues prevented the GEO Group-run facility from providing adequate medical care. Among them were staffing shortages, flawed medication distribution procedures, and what he described as callous indifference from staff.

Here at the Estelle Unit in Texas, where I am currently incarcerated, I have watched at least four men die in their cells from medical neglect over the past 18 months. It is entirely possible that I am now watching a fifth.

Alvaro Hernandez, better known as Xinachtli, is 73 years old. After spending the past 23 years in solitary confinement, his health has deteriorated rapidly. Following a heart attack and stroke last year, Xinachtli lost the ability to walk and was briefly transferred to a prison hospital for treatment of life-threatening complications.

According to reporting by The New Republic, a subsequent medical examination revealed a potentially cancerous lesion on his liver, spinal degeneration, heart and kidney damage, and a hernia. Despite these serious medical concerns, Xinachtli received only minimal treatment and was discharged from the hospital. Rather than providing the lifesaving medical care to which all people are entitled, prison officials returned him to a solitary confinement cell to die.

Basic human decency for people in government custody should not be compared to a stay at a luxury hotel. Providing healthy, nutritious meals free from mold and worms is not a perk. Adequate medical care should never be an optional upgrade.

As long as this country is in the business of caging human beings, the least it can do is adhere to basic health and safety standards.

The news from Delaney Hall should spark a broader national conversation about the realities faced by incarcerated people throughout this country. The way we are treated, whether in ICE jails or state prisons, is rooted in cruelty and vengeance. It must change.