SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The state has agreed to provide nearly $370,000 over two years for public defenders to represent people arrested in an operation reduce crime around the downtown homeless shelter in Salt Lake City.
The state Indigent Defense Commission approved the new funding for Salt Lake County on Wednesday.
More than 1,000 arrests have been made since Operation Rio Grande began in August, an increase which the commission said would require public defenders to handle too many cases.
Some commission members said that consideration of increased costs for public defenders because of the additional arrests didn’t appear to be considered when plans for Operation Rio Grande were draft.
The downtown shelter is expected to close in mid-2019.
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