diff --git a/src/base/BUILD.bazel b/src/base/BUILD.bazel
index 9d8b9a0..09f723d 100644
--- a/src/base/BUILD.bazel
+++ b/src/base/BUILD.bazel
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
         "string_utils.h",
         "type_traits.h",
         "uint128.h",
+        "utils.h",
     ],
     visibility = ["//src/decoder:__pkg__"],
 )
diff --git a/src/base/utils.h b/src/base/utils.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0a4fabd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/base/utils.h
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+// Copyright 2018 Google LLC
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//     https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+#ifndef ASTC_CODEC_BASE_UTILS_H_
+#define ASTC_CODEC_BASE_UTILS_H_
+
+#include <cassert>
+#include <cstdio>
+#include <cstdlib>
+
+#ifdef NDEBUG
+#define UTILS_RELEASE_ASSERT(x)                                        \
+  do {                                                                 \
+    const bool result = (x);                                           \
+    if (!result) {                                                     \
+      fprintf(stderr, "Error: UTILS_RELEASE_ASSERT failed: %s\n", #x); \
+      abort();                                                         \
+    }                                                                  \
+  } while (false)
+#else
+#define UTILS_RELEASE_ASSERT(x) assert(x)
+#endif
+
+#endif  // ASTC_CODEC_BASE_UTILS_H_
diff --git a/src/decoder/integer_sequence_codec.cc b/src/decoder/integer_sequence_codec.cc
index da7bc56..83c0359 100644
--- a/src/decoder/integer_sequence_codec.cc
+++ b/src/decoder/integer_sequence_codec.cc
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 
 #include "src/decoder/integer_sequence_codec.h"
 #include "src/base/math_utils.h"
+#include "src/base/utils.h"
 
 #include <algorithm>
 #include <iostream>
@@ -383,8 +384,8 @@
 
   // These are generally errors -- there should never be any ASTC values
   // outside of this range
-  assert(range > 0);
-  assert(range < 1 << kLog2MaxRangeForBits);
+  UTILS_RELEASE_ASSERT(range > 0);
+  UTILS_RELEASE_ASSERT(range < 1 << kLog2MaxRangeForBits);
 
   *bits = 0;
   *trits = 0;
diff --git a/src/decoder/partition.cc b/src/decoder/partition.cc
index 90d39fd..43ff6f0 100644
--- a/src/decoder/partition.cc
+++ b/src/decoder/partition.cc
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 
 #include "src/decoder/partition.h"
 #include "src/base/bottom_n.h"
+#include "src/base/utils.h"
 #include "src/decoder/footprint.h"
 
 #include <algorithm>
@@ -399,12 +400,12 @@
 
 int PartitionMetric(const Partition& a, const Partition& b) {
   // Make sure that one partition is at least a subset of the other...
-  assert(a.footprint == b.footprint);
+  UTILS_RELEASE_ASSERT(a.footprint == b.footprint);
 
   // Make sure that the number of parts is within our limits. ASTC has a maximum
   // of four subsets per block according to the specification.
-  assert(a.num_parts <= kMaxNumSubsets);
-  assert(b.num_parts <= kMaxNumSubsets);
+  UTILS_RELEASE_ASSERT(a.num_parts <= kMaxNumSubsets);
+  UTILS_RELEASE_ASSERT(b.num_parts <= kMaxNumSubsets);
 
   const int w = a.footprint.Width();
   const int h = b.footprint.Height();
diff --git a/src/decoder/test/integer_sequence_codec_test.cc b/src/decoder/test/integer_sequence_codec_test.cc
index b66ff2b..120e8b0 100644
--- a/src/decoder/test/integer_sequence_codec_test.cc
+++ b/src/decoder/test/integer_sequence_codec_test.cc
@@ -74,9 +74,8 @@
     EXPECT_EQ(b, kExpectedCounts[i - 1][2]);
   }
 
-  ASSERT_DEBUG_DEATH(IntegerSequenceCodec::GetCountsForRange(0, &t, &q, &b), "");
-  ASSERT_DEBUG_DEATH(
-      IntegerSequenceCodec::GetCountsForRange(256, &t, &q, &b), "");
+  ASSERT_DEATH(IntegerSequenceCodec::GetCountsForRange(0, &t, &q, &b), "");
+  ASSERT_DEATH(IntegerSequenceCodec::GetCountsForRange(256, &t, &q, &b), "");
 
   IntegerSequenceCodec::GetCountsForRange(1, &t, &q, &b);
   EXPECT_EQ(t, 0);
diff --git a/tools/bazel.rc b/tools/bazel.rc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e47b006
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/bazel.rc
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+# For building with the clang-specific flavor of ASAN.
+build:clang-asan --client_env=CC=clang-5.0
+build:clang-asan --copt -g3
+build:clang-asan --copt -fsanitize=address
+build:clang-asan --linkopt -fsanitize=address
+build:clang-asan --copt -fno-omit-frame-pointer