DRUG-FREE ZONES FOCUS OF JUSTICE TASK FORCE

A group charged with finding ways to reduce the disproportionate number of
minorities in Multnomah County's adult justice system focused on drug-free
zones and pretrial release issues Thursday in its first meeting since June.

The 30 community leaders and residents met at the Native American Youth
Association in North Portland to discuss issues before the Task Force on
Racial Over-Representation of Minorities in the Criminal Justice System.

David M. Bennett, a Utah-based criminal justice consultant, told the group
there was no statistical proof that minority defendants are denied pretrial
release more often than white defendants. Even so, Bennett urged task force
members to develop consistent criteria for determining release.

Gresham Police Chief Bernie Giusto, who heads the task force's arrest
committee, said the community might have to choose between drug-free zones
and racial overrepresentation.

Drug-free zones allow police to keep people suspected of dealing or buying
drugs out of designated districts and to charge violators with criminal
trespass.

"There's no doubt about it: Drug-free zones are in neighborhoods of color,"
he said. "The tough question is that someone is going to have to give up
something to get something."

The task force co-chairmen, Multnomah County District Attorney Michael
Schrunk and the Rev. Ronald L. Williams, visited the Oregon State
Penitentiary in Salem to discuss that issue with African American inmates.

"They talked to us about drug-free zones, racial profiling and multiple
counts," Williams said, then joked to Schrunk that "they don't like what
you're doing, Mike."

But Williams said he and Schrunk have committed to going back to the prison.

The 26-member task force of community leaders and residents was created to
address questions raised by data the county's Public Safety Coordinating
Council released in October. The council found that African American,
Latino and Native American adults are arrested at a higher rate than whites
and are hit with harsher sentences.

The task force's mission is to identify short- and long-term strategies to
reduce the overrepresentation of minorities in the justice system.

There was no mention during the meeting of Williams' recent public
troubles. The 46-year-old pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal
Church, a prominent civic leader and activist, recently faced questions
about the settlement of a sexual harassment lawsuit against him at his
former church in Missouri.

Bethel's steward board has requested that Williams be transferred, saying
Williams' community involvement detracted from his service to the church.

"Williams is co-chair and will continue until he's removed from the
community," said Lyman Louis, research and policy analyst for the council.
"He has support of the task force. . . . He's very keyed into the community
we're trying to address, and as long as they accept him, so do we."