Here's how Florida's law is supposed to work:

• Before sexual offenders are released from prison, state psychologists determine if they suffer from psychosexual disorders called paraphilias, which create powerful cravings that are difficult to control without treatment.

• If so, those offenders are locked up beyond their prison terms in the state's treatment center.

• At the trials, prosecutors and defense attorneys wage legal battles that determine whether those offenders will be held indefinitely.

• Once they are committed, offenders continue therapy until they can prove they no longer pose a threat to the community.

Sen. Alex Villalobos, a Republican from Miami and co-sponsor of the Jimmy Ryce Act, said the real intent of the law was to keep offenders off the streets, calling it a ''stop-gap'' measure.

''Sexual offenders were not receiving heavy prison sentences, that's what we needed to fix,'' he said, adding that the program achieves that goal.

MATTER OF MONEY
FUNDING PROBLEMS FROM THE START

But breakdowns in the program started from Day One -- when the Legislature refused to properly fund a law it passed amid tough talk and vows of ``never again.''

In the program's first year, the Department of Children & Families asked for $27 million to run the program. It got $17 million.

As the number of offenders at the center more than quadrupled -- from 125 in 2000 to more than 500 today -- the amount of funding continued to lag far behind.

The program is so strapped for cash that the state's contract with Liberty Behavioral Health, the private company that runs the Florida Civil Commitment Center, provides only enough money to treat 150 offenders -- or less than a third of the men held there.

''We have our sleeves rolled up and we're doing the best we can with the resources we have,'' said Adam Deming, the clinical director of the treatment center.

Of the 16 states with civil commitment laws, only South Carolina and Kansas spend less on treatment per offender -- and both hold fewer than 100 men.

''Right now, Florida's program is not doing what it needs to,'' said Shaw, the Gainesville psychologist.

With more offenders sent to the center every month, Liberty told the state in September it would provide therapy only to those who have been committed by the courts.

But those proceedings -- known as civil commitment trials -- are so long and tedious that more than 60 percent of the offenders at the center haven't had them yet.

They're supposed to go to trial within 30 days, but the average wait time is now 2 ½ years.

The problem is that lawmakers passed the Jimmy Ryce Act without a clear plan for how the trials would work and few guideposts to follow, according to legal experts.

For example, what is admissible into evidence? How should complex, expert testimony be handled?

The result: Dozens of suits have been filed challenging the rules, costing taxpayers millions and leaving hundreds of offenders in limbo.

Two appellate courts have urged the Florida Supreme Court to step in and create rules to clear up the confusion. But that hasn't happened.

Meanwhile, offenders at the center have collectively spent more than 900 years waiting for their day in court.