Treatment for sex offenders is not limited to the prison grounds: Most offenders released on probation or parole are required to enroll in community sex offender programs.

West Central Behavioral Health and Clara Martin Center are two private centers that provide treatment to many of the roughly 125 sex offenders currently under supervision in the Upper Valley.

Community treatment generally consists of twice-weekly group sessions. Therapists also talk regularly with offenders' probation and parole officers to gauge progress and coordinate efforts.

"There's a real tight bond between the probation officers and the therapy people," said Mary Jane Egerton, a clinical social worker for West Central who leads two groups for sex offenders who committed crimes against children and minors.

Probation officers, for instance, may do random checks at the homes of offenders to make sure they haven't been looking at Internet pornography. Offenders may also have to undergo polygraphs and answer questions about whether they are abiding by the rules laid out in probation conditions, as well as ones in a separate contract with treatment providers.

Those offenders who have been incarcerated may have already participated in a prison treatment program, but having a community program to help offenders re-adjust is also crucial. "No one wants an offender coming back in the community without a treatment plan," Egerton said.

Community treatment is similar in many respects to in-prison treatment; both include group therapy discussion and role-playing aimed at helping offenders understand how to avoid high-risk situations and how to change thinking patterns that lead to trouble. But the community programs, which generally last around three years, also must help offenders develop a network of carefully selected family members and friends to aid in rehabilitation and help them find jobs.

In some ways, community programs are even more important than the ones in prison, said Burlington forensic psychologist Tom Powell, who is the former clinical director of Vermont's sex offender treatment program.

Back on the outside, sex offenders can face some of the same problems and temptations they had before their conviction. Ongoing counseling is crucial to those offenders as they navigate their way back into society, he said.

"All the stuff that matters in the end is what happens on the outside," Powell said.

Convicted sex offenders face a number of stressful situations in the community, including the search for employment, said Egerton. Employers may consider sex offenders a liability risk and refuse to hire them, she said. In addition, all of the men in Egerton's groups have rules prohibiting contact with children, so they can't work at fast-food restaurants and other places frequented by children. "Guys coming out of prison have a terrible time getting a job," she said.

Events regarded as routine for ordinary citizens can require extensive planning for sex offenders. One offender, for instance, wanted to go to a family Thanksgiving dinner, recalled Egerton.

Because children would be at the dinner, however, the offender had to work out a set of rules he promised to abide by. So Egerton had to get, in writing, how many children would attend the dinner and learn their names, their parents' names, where the offender would be sitting at the table, when he planned to leave and with whom. Other adults in the family also had to sign agreements saying they knew a sex offender would be attending the dinner.

Close supervision is considered a key part of integrating sex offenders back into the community, said Sullivan County Chief Probation Officer Chris Callahan.

"It's a crime of secrecy, especially if it's against a child," said Callahan, whose office of four handles about 300 probationers and parolees a year, about 15 of whom are sex offenders.

Counseling may also include chaperoning classes for the offenders' family members so that they learn to know the external risks. "Realistically, we're not out there 24 hours a day," said Callahan. "So we have to rely on different sources of information."

Thomas Hunter, director of the Vermont Corrections Department office in White River Junction, said officers meet with sex offenders to develop plans that include individual "rules of conduct." Four probation officers handle the roughly 40 sex offenders now supervised in Windsor County. Each of those officers has caseloads totaling about 40, which include other types of criminal cases. "Our caseloads are always stretched," said Hunter. But, he added, "most people are successfully supervised and successfully complete treatment."

That doesn't mean they are monitored on a daily basis; in most cases, supervision includes weekly meetings as well as unannounced home visits.

Part of that is due to resources. Rick Rideout, the manager of the Orange County probation and parole office in Chelsea, said that his three staff members juggle 313 cases, including 23 sex offenders.

"The caseloads are bulging," he said. Nonetheless, he said, sex offenders are the probationers with whom his office usually has the least trouble.

"They're more compliant than other offenders," said Rideout. "They don't want to be in jail. They have a rough time there."

Grafton Chief Probation Officer Dave Cady, whose office of five handles 500 cases, including 40 sex offenders, said his experience is that community treatment is generally successful.

"Most of them take treatment seriously because they know if they don't," said Cady, "they could face further incarceration."

One Vermont study shows that community treatment can be beneficial. The study covered 122 Addison County sex offenders under state supervision between 1984 and 1995 and tracked whether they were re-arrested or reconvicted of a new sex crime.

Of the 71 men enrolled in a specialized, community-based sex offender treatment program, only one committed another sex crime, the researchers reported in a 1998 journal article in Criminal Justice and Behavior.

By contrast, five of the 32 men in treatment that was not specialized for sex offenders re-offended sexually. Two of the 19 men who participated in no treatment committed another sex crime.

The authors concluded: "Thoughtful community placements can spare society the enormous financial burden of incarcerating offenders whose re-offense risk is low and is not likely to be appreciably altered by serving a long prison sentence."

Offenders typically pay the cost of community programs through insurance or on a sliding scale based on income. Probation officers who were interviewed reported that in recent years, there hasn't been great difficulty finding space for new participants.

Egerton said community programs are successful when they help the offenders to improve their confidence in dealing with other adults. Many times, she said, offenders are passive and feel powerless in dealing with people their own age, including spouses or colleagues. To compensate, she said, they may turn to children, who by nature are less critical and more loving.