Useful Public Service Overview
The Montrose County Useful Public Service Program is a program that monitors court-ordered useful public service (community service) hours, reporting to the courts on the completion, or non-compliance of hours. The program is self-funded by the fees paid by the defendants to perform their hours.
A defendant is sentenced in court, and as part of a plea agreement, or part of mandatory requirement, in which the judge may have ordered him/her to perform a required amount of hours to complete. The defendant must pay a useful public service fee, which in most cases will be assessed with the court fines.
The defendant must then sign up with this program to perform his/her hours. Hours must be performed at a worksite assigned by this program. Many non-profit agencies, churches, senior programs and government offices are available as worksites within the county. If a defendant does his/her hours without signing up with this program, or does the hours at a worksite that is not authorized, the hours will not be accepted.
Summary of Step-by-Step Instructions
1: Defendant is sentenced and ordered to perform useful public service hours as part of his/her sentence.
2: The defendant must register with this office to be assigned a worksite.
3: Defendant is given paperwork to take to the assigned worksite. It is up to the defendant to schedule his/her own hours to work with the assigned worksite and work as scheduled. The worksite supervisor will monitor and log hours worked.
4: Once all hours are completed, the worksite supervisor will sign paperwork. The defendant is then responsible for returning all paperwork to this office.
5: This office will verify hours worked and report to the court upon completion of hours.
6: If hours are not completed by the due date, a complaint is submitted to the court for non-compliance. A hearing will be scheduled for the defendant to appear before the judge. Defendant(s) may be given an extension or be advised on the violations. (currently certain judges will impose 1 day of jail for each hour not completed)
Inter-County Referrals
If a defendant is sentenced in Montrose county, but lives in another county or state, the hours can be transferred to the local useful public service office. The defendant must register first with this office in order to have his/her hours transferred. For a list of all useful public service offices throughout Colorado, see www.coloradocasp.org.