In Vermont, Douglas' "Safe Communities" package would enact a civil commitment law to keep untreated sex offenders, as well as violent criminals, in detention even after their sentence had been served.

He also wants to expand "special investigation units" with expertise in sex offenses around the state; criminalize sexual contact between school employees and students; and expand the state's sex-offender registry on the Web to make it "user-friendly" for parents.

Though it is not part of his legislation, Douglas has also signaled that he would sign a bill that includes mandatory minimum sentences for sex offenders were it to reach his desk.

In a phone interview earlier this year, Douglas defended his emphasis on sex-offender legislation, maintaining that the number of sexual assaults in Vermont has increased recently, even though the overall crime rate has dropped significantly.

"In relative terms, this is a category of crime that is more troublesome because it's going against the trend," Douglas said. "People are very concerned, especially when young children are involved. Society has a responsibility to protect them and that's one I take seriously."

Douglas is correct that the rate of reported rape rose in 2004 after years of decline. However, law enforcement records show that the rate of reported rape against women and girls in Vermont (and New Hampshire) has stayed at around 80 percent of the national rate in recent years. Douglas acknowledged as much, even as he alluded to the Cashman dispute.

"We're a very safe state in relative terms, and we need to keep all this in perspective. That's a message I believe we need to get out to a wider audience," he said. "We're hearing about a certain case ... but we're a safe state, and third-safest in the nation, according to one stat I saw, and no one should fear living or visiting here."

Still, Douglas also said civil confinements, which would require a secure facility beyond Corrections Department facilities, are needed.

"Because we know who's in jail now, and when each one is likely to be released, over the next decade there is likely to be a number of offenders who have been convicted of serious sexual assault crimes who are scheduled to be released," he said. "We can't know at this point whether they will be successfully treated and safe for re-entry into the communities, but we don't know that they're not, and that's why I think it's a proposal worth enacting."

In New Hampshire, Lynch's plan would give prosecutors the option to seek a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years for someone convicted of molesting a child under 13; allow civil commitment of sexual predators; enable local communities to prohibit sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school, day-care center or park used by children; and even implement a GPS monitoring system of sex offenders by July 2008.

A Valley News analysis of New Hampshire Department of Children and Families data found almost 50 percent fewer substantiated reports of sexual abuse of children younger than 18 in 2005 than in 1994.

The rate of rape and sexual assault of women and girls reported to New Hampshire law enforcement has increased steadily since 1997. However, experts say the increase may be due, at least in part, to increased reporting by local police departments.

In an interview earlier this year, Lynch said data suggesting the rate of sex abuse against children may be declining were beside the point.

"I think if there's even one child involved, or one child who could be saved from the legislation, then I think it's worth it," Lynch said. "I think even one child being molested in New Hampshire is too many."

Lynch also said lengthy sentences are not only warranted, but needed.

"I really do believe that the acts of these criminals, and they themselves, are just despicable," Lynch said. "And I've heard too many stories of child molesters who rape a young girl. They are in prison for five or six years, and they get out and do it again."

Asked for substantiation, his office cited at least four cases in recent years where men who had been convicted of sexually assaulting children served short prison terms and then were arrested and convicted of other sex crimes involving children.

Reaction to the two governors' proposals is mixed, even among lawmakers steeped in the issue.

The Vermont House late last month rejected the civil commitment proposal but did pass a measure that would toughen the state's response for some sex crimes. The Senate Judiciary Committee, which is expected to tackle the bill later this month, may try to add mandatory minimum sentences to the equation, according to panel Chairman Dick Sears, a Bennington Democrat.

"I think (mandatory minimums) let Vermonters know that we're serious about sex offenders, that we're serious abut providing some form of sanction for that behavior, (and) that doesn't have such disparate sentencing throughout the state," Sears said last month.

In Concord, the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee is slated to vote on legislation on Wednesday that will likely include much of Lynch's package, though it may lessen some of the mandatory minimum sentences he is seeking, according to Hammond, the Lebanon Democrat.

State Rep. John Tholl Jr. — a Whitefield Republican and retired State Police sergeant who now serves as the part-time police chief of Dalton, N.H. — said he supports Lynch's proposal to give prosecutors discretion in seeking the 25-year mandatory minimum sentence.

"I like the way it's worded in his bill," said Tholl, who is also on the Criminal Justice subcommittee working on the bill. "When you have a perpetrator who is in the family, and the family says 'this is bad, but it's not that bad,' he doesn't have to go to jail for 25-years-to-life."

But Tholl also said he would like to see a classification system for sex offenders, which he said Lynch's bill does not propose, to separate less serious offenders, such as ones convicted of indecent exposure, from more dangerous offenders, such as child rapists.