Tonight NPR reporter Daniel Zwerdling did an amazing, in-depth piece on immigrant deaths in federal prisons. The story didn’t focus on secret torture schemes but rather a different sort of cruel and unusual punishment—detainees left to die during medical emergenices. For this piece, “the Death of Richard Rust”, Zwerdling conducted a lengthy investigation; detainee after detainee spoke about guards waiting 5 to 40 minutes to respond to inmates having serious medical emergencies—projectile vomiting, passing out, not being able to breathe. With nothing but a wall of silence from prison and federal officials, the piece gave a chilling report on the deaths of Richard Rust and others, whose deaths sound as though they could have been avoided had these detainees been afforded reasonable medical treatment. It’s a sickening portrait of our “homeland securityâ€� officials, rampant racism, and people who have little at their disposal to combat this fucked up system, as many illegal immigrants are afraid of losing even more of the few rights they retain. It sounds like NPR will continue to follow this beat, with more chilling reports on rampant prisoner abuse here in the US.