Chaplain Sues for Access to Jail

An outspoken Roman Catholic lay chaplain honored last month by an international human rights group for his jailhouse ministry has sued Los Angeles County to allow him to return to the jail and continue his work with juvenile inmates.

Six months ago, Javier Stauring, director of detention ministry for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, was barred from the county jail after he publicly criticized the living conditions of juvenile inmates awaiting trial on charges of murder and other adult crimes.

At the time, sheriff’s officials said they were concerned that Stauring was disclosing private information about inmates, including their mental condition.

They denied that the chaplain was being singled out for organizing protests and directing media attention to the dark cellblock, where inmates as young as 14 were confined to cells for as long as 23 1/2 hours a day.

Stauring sued Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca on Wednesday, claiming Baca had violated his 1st Amendment right to speak freely about the lives of the youths he counsels in jail. He said he had received permission from juvenile inmates and their legal guardians before speaking publicly of their plight.

Stauring also wants a federal judge to reject as unconstitutional guidelines that require all volunteers in the jail to obtain written authorization from a sheriff’s official before talking to the media about “custody operations and/or confidential inmate information,” according to the lawsuit.

A spokesman for Baca declined to comment, saying it is departmental policy not to discuss pending litigation.

Stauring has ministered to jailed youths for the last eight years. He also is policy director of Faith Communities for Families and Children, an interfaith coalition seeking to improve the lives of children in the juvenile justice and foster care systems.

When Stauring’s credentials were revoked, so were those of the Rev. Gregory Boyle, executive director of Homeboy Industries, which offers employment to gang members trying to reform. Boyle said then that he had been told he could no longer visit youths at the jail, but sheriff’s officials denied that.

Stauring said that he wanted to change the system. “I know what exists right now is a sense of fear where you can’t push issues beyond what would be considered OK by the institution,” he said. “Even before I spoke out, other chaplains said, ‘You are going to be kicked out of here’ ”

No one has ever alleged that Stauring “has interfered with the operations of the jail, or presents a threat to the safety or security of the jail,” according to the lawsuit.

Stauring was quoted in The Los Angeles Times in a series of stories as criticizing the conditions for juveniles charged with adult crimes, and he organized protests outside the jail to draw attention to their plight.

As a result, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors signed a $1-million contract with the California Youth Authority to house juveniles at its Norwalk facility. The transfer of about 30 juveniles from the jail began last month.

Stauring received an award from Human Rights Watch, an independent, nongovernmental group that investigates human rights abuses, for his “great courage” in protesting jail conditions for juvenile inmates and demanding changes.