RICHMOND — The Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office released a statement Thursday leveling multiple accusations against an immigration rights group that was recently banned from visiting ICE detainees, including that volunteers passed along contraband to inmates.

The sheriff’s statement follows reports where members of the group CIVIC (Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement) accused the sheriff’s office of retaliating against them for publicizing allegations that ICE detainees were being mistreated at the West Contra Costa Detention Facility in Richmond.

“CIVIC’s reckless accusation that they are the victim of retaliation is complete nonsense,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “They knew and understood jail facility rules and procedures and violated them.”

According to the sheriff’s statement, approximately 20 volunteers from CIVIC violated numerous policies put in place for groups that visit the jail and interact with inmates. Volunteers were found to have sent “contraband to incarcerated persons,” relayed messages to family and friends of detainees, and given out their personal phone numbers and addresses. They also allegedly deposited money into accounts of incarcerated persons and receiving phone calls and mail from inmates.

The sheriff’s statement does not specify what type of contraband was sent. CIVIC’s clearance to visit the jail was revoked March 5, and the group has a right to appeal.

In a three-page statement released late Thursday, CIVIC said its volunteers never sent contraband to detainees, and none of the interactions with the inmates broke any jail rules and all were widely known by ICE and deputies since the onset of the group working at the Richmond facility in 2011.

CIVIC said volunteers have provided up to $20 of commissary money, raised from donations, to people in detention “so they can buy food to supplement their meager meals.” Volunteers have always fielded phone calls and mail from ICE detainees, including many of the calls through its formerly jail-approved hotline. The jail terminated that hotline, which facilitates visits and legal representation, on Feb. 15 with no advance warning, the group said. All those calls and mail were monitored by jail staff, CIVIC said.

“The money we provide people in ICE detention so they can buy food serves as a major source of revenue for the facility along with the phone calls. Both commissary items and phone calls are exorbitantly priced,” said Christina Mansfield, co-founder of CIVIC. “Up until now, the money we have been sending to people in ICE detention has served the facility just fine. But now that we are speaking out against the system, the facility has decided that we no longer are serving them and we must be silenced.”

The group has always provided detainees, along with their assigned ICE officer and immigration judge, the home addresses of volunteers so they can serve as sponsors, CIVIC said. The group said that is often the only way the detainees can get released on parole.

The group said no contraband was ever sent to detainees.

“We have only sent religious and literary texts requested by people in ICE detention such as Catholic prayer books directly from book publishers,” the group said. “CIVIC volunteers are not employees of the facility, but even if they were, their assigned duties are to visit people and provide them with the support they need to address complaints and obtain their freedom through the immigration legal system.”

CIVIC sends volunteers to more than 40 jails to monitor conditions and raise awareness about mistreatment of ICE detainees. Last November, the group circulated a letter signed by 27 female inmates at the Richmond jail, alleging rampant mistreatment that included prolonged lockdowns and failure to provide bathroom breaks.

The sheriff conducted its own investigation, and in December released a statement calling most of the allegations of mistreatment “unfounded,” but conceding a guard had used “profanity” with one inmate, and another hadn’t been given a replacement key to her cell in a timely fashion.

“The Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff welcomes and partners with numerous community-based organizations and non-governmental groups to assist incarcerated persons with their rehabilitation and re-entry back to their communities when they are released,” Assistant Sheriff Matt Schuler said in the written statement. “While CIVIC’s clearance was revoked, we continue to partner with numerous community and volunteer groups that provide needed services and resources to incarcerated persons.”

The sheriff’s office said it is reviewing other groups as well to see if other violations occurred.

CIVIC contends that the sheriff’s office ban was in retaliation for its publicizing the mistreatment allegations of female detainees last year.

“In terminating our program, the Sheriff’s Department and ICE is not just trying to punish us, they are trying to send a message to other activists to stay silent,” said Christina Fialho, a CIVIC co-founder​. “We will not be silenced.”

The group can appeal the ban as well.

“We hope to resolve this amicably, but we are looking into all our legal remedies,” Fialho said.