Sheriff, S.D. Clergy Group at Odds Over Jail Ministry

The question of who should coordinate religious activities for San Diego County Jail inmates has driven a wedge between the Sheriff’s Department and a group of local clergy.

San Diego County Jail Ministries, a group that unofficially planned those activities for more than a year, claims the department acted in bad faith last week when it recruited Christian Jail Workers of Los Angeles to take over the job.

But Sheriff’s Cmdr. Charles Wigginton said he made the decision after the San Diego organization refused to appoint a chaplain coordinator who would be directly accountable to the Sheriff’s Department.

Under the new agreement, the Los Angeles organization appointed San Diego minister Dave DeHaas as chaplain coordinator, Wigginton said. That organization will pay his salary, saving the department at least $24,000 a year.

But the local ministers said they also supported themselves, and the department has never had any complaints about their work. Therefore, they cannot understand why they were replaced.

The Rev. Ted Horner, president of San Diego County Jail Ministries, said the Los Angeles organization is too conservative and is out to proselytize the prisoners with no regard for their personal beliefs. He worries that the new coordinator will not welcome outside ministers.

The prisoners will suffer under the new chaplain coordinator, Horner says, because the Los Angeles organization represents only the Christian faith, whereas San Diego County Jail Ministries is an interdenominational organization.

Horner said his organization tries to match prisoners with ministers from the faith of their choice. They offer prisoners copies of the Christian New Testament, the Jewish Torah, the black Muslim’s Koran, the Jehovah’s Witness Watchtower and the Book of Mormon.

On Wednesday, the local ministers renewed their calls for the department to cancel its agreement with DeHaas, but, according to the ministers, the department has refused.

Wigginton said he is comfortable with his decision about the Los Angeles group and believes DeHaas will not exclude local ministers from his program.

“There should be no change in what they were doing in the past,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, the ministers will not be closed out. That is their fear, apparently, but I don’t see that happening.”

DeHaas refused to comment on any changes he might make or whether the local ministers will be encouraged to participate in religious services at the jails.

The local ministers became involved in jail ministry in the late 1970s, when the Sheriff’s Department asked them to serve as advisers to then chaplain coordinator Robert Youmans.

When Youmans retired from his paid position in 1984, the department asked the ministers to replace him without pay.