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PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Current census
data indicate the Hispanic population of Bonneville County, Idaho
to be only 4.19 percent of the total population. However, judicial
statistics for 1995 indicated that Driving Under the Influence
of alcohol (DUI) convictions of Hispanic Americans in the county
averaged 20 percent of the total DUI convictions in certain months.
Probation Department statistics revealed a case load consisting
of 16 percent Hispanic DUI offenders, with 34 percent of this
number comprising prior DUI offenders. Moreover, the numbers
of Hispanic DUI offenders was four times the population of Hispanics
in the county.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The goal of the
Bilingual Probation Officer Program was to decrease the number
of Hispanic DUI cases in Bonneville County. Objectives of the
program included:
- Creating a bilingual
alcohol traffic safety program
- Engaging a bilingual
probation officer
- Providing community-specific
cultural awareness training for the bilingual probation officer
STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
In 1995, the Idaho
Office of Highway Safety developed the Bilingual Probation Officer
Program to promote responsibility in traffic safety within the
Hispanic community of Bonneville County. The Office of Highway
Safety's primary approach was enhancement of offender supervision
and education through engagement of a bilingual probation officer.
The bilingual probation officer implemented the new effort through
an organized and straightforward system of activities including:
- Hispanic misdemeanor
offenders were referred to the bilingual probation officer for
case management
- The bilingual probation
officer supervised the case load in keeping with standardized
criteria
- Each offender received
a formal assessment of his/her needs
- A case management
plan was developed for each Hispanic offender
- Each offender's
progress was individually monitored
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