Work Release

Work Release Program Overview

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 the recently introduced Assembly Bill 109, Public Safety Realignment.

Personnel assigned to the Work Release Unit are responsible for monitoring the approximately 400 Work Release Participants that are in the program at any given time. The participants work at 98 sites throughout the county. These participants perform manual labor in various county departments such as the Parks Department, Sheriff’s Office, Waste Management, Engineering, DHS and KMC. Kern County saves money that they would have to pay for full time workers to perform these functions.