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ST. LOUIS — A group of city aldermen are hoping to force the downtown jail to let lawyers meet with clients and pass them key case materials after months of complaints about denials and delays.

Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier called a cadre of attorneys to a Public Safety Committee meeting on Thursday to speak about their frustration with jail policies that have postponed cases, frustrated clients and even created the potential for attorneys to be disciplined for ineffective representation.

“The City Justice Center is a cauldron of abuse and civil rights violations,� said attorney Javad Khazaeli, who has filed several civil rights lawsuits against the city in recent years.

Sonnier’s bill would establish time windows during which attorneys must be granted access to their clients. It also requires the jail to allow attorneys to share case information with detainees using computers, phones or paper and creates a grievance process by which lawyers can complain if the rules aren’t being followed.

Sonnier said it would essentially codify the language of an April order from the city’s presiding judge that lawyers say the City Justice Center hasn’t been following.

“I think, clearly, there is a problem,� Sonnier said.

Sonnier’s co-sponsor, Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, also presented a separate bill that would require the jail to allow visits by members of civilian oversight boards, clergy and elected officials. He said it was an effort to increase transparency at a facility that has been the center of controversies and complaints about conditions and inmate deaths.

But the proposals may hit some bumps down the road.

A spokesman for Mayor Tishaura O. Jones said Thursday the mayor had “operational concerns� about inmate, employee and visitor safety and was looking forward to “continued discussions with sponsoring aldermen.�

“Particularly, we want to be sure that the language in the bills and the requirements it would put on CJC staff matches the facility’s current capacity while we continuously work to hire more correctional officers,� said spokesman Conner Kerrigan in a statement.

The bills come amid a controversial year for the City Justice Center. A civilian jail board tasked with overseeing the facility struggled to get access to records and the building itself, leading to months of turmoil. Some called for the resignation of jail Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah, who was appointed by Jones. Board members resigned in frustration.

Then, in January, a public defender complaining about a lack of health care released a photo of a client who had developed a cantoloupe-sized hernia on his hip. His family complained the facility ignored his medical needs.

After media outlets published the photo, the jail banned attorneys from bringing cellphones into meetings with clients, as attorneys had done for years. Weeks later, they stopped lawyers from passing paper forms and printouts to their clients through a metal slot.

And the struggles continued, attorneys said, even after the city’s presiding judge, Elizabeth Hogan, ordered the jail to allow attorneys to carry cell phones and open paper-pass slots.

Susan McGraugh, a lawyer who runs St. Louis University’s criminal defense clinic, said she has visited every prison in the state and two dozen jails and has never experienced such opposition.

“This is really, really not normal,� she said.

And the lack of access can interfere with attorneys’ ethical obligations to keep their clients, none of whom have yet been convicted of crimes, updated on their cases, McGraugh said. The result could be that cases get delayed, dismissed or sent back after a review from an appeals court to start all over again.

Khazaeli said that leaves victims of crime in the lurch as they wait for their day in court, too.

“That is justice delayed for victims, too,� he said. “Every delay costs taxpayers money.�