Alternative Sentencing Unit (ASU)

In 1983, the Sheriff’s Office implemented Alternative Sentencing Programs to find cost effective ways to impose sentences on lesser offenders. The ASU programs give the Sheriff’s Office different options to impose judicially mandated sentences in ways that maintain community safety and require inmates to “pay back the community” through community based work. Between 1983 and 1992, the ASU programs were housed in several different county facilities, including the basement of the County Courthouse and Community Corrections.

In 1992, Alternative Sentencing was finally housed under one roof in the new ASU addition to the Detention Facility. In the years since, the programs have seen tremendous growth and change. Today a staff of 45 civilian employees administers a total of 5 programs, which are:

Work Release – a residential program in which inmates are allowed to go to work and are required to live at the facility when not working.
Workenders – Inmates report on Saturday and Sunday and are taken out on supervised crews to perform Community Service work.
Midweeks - A second work crew program that operates on Tuesday and Wednesday each week.
Electronic Home Monitoring - Inmates are monitored electronically as well as by staff while serving their sentence in their home. They are not allowed to leave without staff permission.
Community Service - is the only program that does not deal with a jail sentence. The staff assigns and supervises clients during the time they are completing their court ordered hours of service.

Inmates assigned to these programs are also required to pay administrative fees to help reduce the cost to taxpayers. Recent studies have shown that alternative programs cost between $12 and $20 a day to administer. Traditional incarceration costs $66 to $80 a day.

In 2007, the Workender and Midweek inmates completed approximately 97,000 hours of service to governmental and non-profit agencies in Larimer County. This saved the community over a half a million dollars in labor.