A group of volunteers started visiting the immigration detainees at the Orange County jails. The immigration inmates have no legal right to a visit from family or friends, the Voice of Orange County reported, but the government does allow limited visits.

“The visits have been quite moving for all of us involved, including the detainees,” Jan Meslin, the coordinator of the group Friends of Orange County Detainees, told the source.

The visits by the group began in September. Months later, in November, the National Detention Watch Network cited the maximum-security Theo Lacy Jail in Orange County as one of the worst U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities in the nation, the article stated. Orange County jails house about 1,000 immigration inmates.

“Theo Lacy is not an acceptable environment for human beings,” the report  said, according to the source. “No set of reforms will be sufficient to make it habitable.”

A Los Angeles Times article published shortly after the report was released stated that Orange County facilities, along with other jails across the country on the top 10 worst list, do not have adequate medical care for inmates or provide enough recreation opportunities or nutrition to inmates.

The Friends of Orange County Detainees volunteer group is also visiting inmates at the Musick Facility and the Santa Ana jail in Orange County, the article stated. So far, about 35 inmates from countries including Vietnam, El Salvador and from countries in the Middle East, have been visited by the volunteers. According to the Voice of Orange County, another 70 inmates have requested visits from the volunteers.

Orange County Sheriff's Cmdr. Steven Kea, who oversees the county jails, said the Musick and Theo Lacy facilities exceed the national standard of the recommended number of visits granted to detainees, the article stated. The jails allow three, 30-minute visits per week.