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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Latest on the investigation into three different parolees who have walked away from a state-run Salt Lake City halfway house and violently clashed with police (all times local):
4:15 p.m.
The Utah Department of Corrections says agents have arrested four halfway-houses fugitives and sent another 29 residents back to prison as the state investigates a string of parolees who have clashed violently with police after walking away from the centers.
Authorities clamped down on the state-run facilities Thursday and two top officials resigned after the governor opened an investigation into the system.
Agents will start sending new parole violators to jail rather than halfway houses as officials start a review to make sure all current residents are cleared to be there.
Parolees won't be leaving on open-ended job searches any more, and those who do have work will be limited to four hours a day. Agents will also start escorting residents who leave for medical appointments.
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3 p.m.
Two top officials at Utah Adult Probation and Parole have resigned after revelations that three different parolees have walked a Salt Lake City halfway house and clashed violently with police in recent months.
Authorities say division director Geri Miller-Fox and Salt Lake County regional administrator Wendy Horlacher stepped down on Thursday.
The news comes after Gov. Gary Herbert used strong words as he announced that this office is reviewing the state-run Fortitude Treatment Center.
Herbert said he needs to know whether the errors were caused by ignorance or intent.
His comments came after an escaped parolee rammed a police car this week, less than a month after a man who walked away from the same center shot and killed Unified Police Officer Doug Barney. A third parolee stabbed a woman in September.
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12:30 p.m.
Utah's governor is reviewing the state's probation and parole system after two men walked away from a state-run treatment center and later had violent encounters with police, including an officer's fatal shooting.
Gov. Gary Herbert announced the review by his office during his monthly news conference on KUED-TV Thursday.
Herbert's announcement comes days after police say a man who walked away from a Salt Lake City drug treatment center in January rammed a police car and led officers on a chase. The man was still missing Thursday.
Utah's prison system said last week that communication breakdowns led the parole board to release another offender, Cory Lee Henderson, to that same treatment center in December instead of possibly sending him back to prison.
Henderson escaped from the same treatment center weeks before police say he killed an officer in January.
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