Oregon’s top prosecutors say increasing the caseloads of public defenders, raising the threshold for criminal defendants to qualify for a public defender and just hiring more lawyers would significantly reduce the number of people facing prosecution without a court-appointed attorney.
The blunt message from the Oregon District Attorneys Association comes on the heels of a major federal court ruling that ordered Washington County Sheriff Pat Garrett to release people from the county jail 10 days after their first court appearance if they do not have a lawyer.
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