Advocates banned from detainee visits

An advocacy group that publicized alleged abuses of immigration detainees in Contra Costa County has been banned from further visitation by the sheriff ’s office.

Volunteers with Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement, a San Francisco group that monitors jails where immigrants are detained, were notified by an email from Capt. Kristi Butterfield that their visitation privileges would be revoked.

The sheriff ’s office said the group “poses a security and safety hazard” to the West County Detention Facility in Richmond.

CIVIC, which publicized a letter from 27 detainees that alleged abuses at the facility including being kept locked up for hours and told to use bags in their cells when they needed to use the toilet, said the move to ban volunteers was retaliation for their advocacy.

“We’ve been doing this here since 2011 and we haven’t changed anything we’re doing,” said Rebecca Merton, CIVIC’s national visitation coordinator. “We’ve never had our clearance revoked before.”

The ban came the day before Attorney General Jeff Sessions visited Sacramento after filing a suit against California’s sanctuary laws, some of which CIVIC helped draft, Merton said.

CIVIC volunteers were told that they were losing their access for habitual violations of policies regarding harassment and discrimination, treatment of offenders, confidentiality, and other ethics agreement violations.

Butterfield’s Tuesday email said that a review of emails, phone calls and radio and newspaper interviews found that CIVIC had violated behavior guidelines for volunteers who interact with detainees. The violations were characterized as “systemic to the entire organization” rather than certain actions by any individuals.

Merton said the sheriff ’s office would not provide specific examples of how the group had violated any particular policies when she requested that information.

Merton said CIVIC’s next steps are to regain access to detainees being held in Contra Costa County, and that it is considering possible legal action on First Amendment grounds. Volunteers assist detainees by connecting them with legal services, helping them with documents and funding bond payments, in addition to providing emotional support through visitation.