The Sheriff’s Work Release Program was established by the Board of Supervisors in 1987, under the statute authority of Penal Code Section 4024.2. The Work Release Program promotes the successful reintegration of law violators back into society and helps reduce the jail population by providing a work program as an alternative to incarceration. Work Release also helps ease the burden of Assembly Bill 109, Public Safety Realignment, introduced in 2011.

Personnel assigned to the Work Release Unit are responsible for monitoring the approximately 400-500 Work Release Participants that are in the program at any given time. The participants perform manual labor at any one of 74 worksites (23 contracted work sites) throughout the County. The Work Release Program can accommodate over 500 participants and operates 7 days a week.