THE SELECTION
LACK OF GUIDELINES COMPLICATE PROCESS

Even before men are locked in the treatment center, Florida's civil commitment program is plagued with problems deciding who gets into treatment -- and who doesn't.

Since the program began, more than 18,000 sexual offenders have been evaluated by DCF. Of those men, 600 were passed over and released, only to be arrested later on new sex crime charges -- many against children.

That's a small percentage, but when those 600 are compared to the number of offenders actually accepted into the program, questions are raised about the effectiveness of the screening process.

Consider: For every 10 men sent to the center, seven were released from prison -- and later arrested, a trend noted by state auditors in 2000 and again in 2004. In both reports, auditors urged DCF to study its screening process.

To this day, nothing has happened.

Part of the problem is the law provides few guidelines for determining which offenders should be screened for the program.

Unlike Florida, other states have steadfast rules to ensure the most dangerous predators are screened.

For example, California's law, which experts point to as one of the nation's best, requires that an offender have multiple victims before they can qualify for the program.

	Conley

That would have placed Timothy Conley, 35, high on the list. He served four years for abducting and raping two teenage girls in Citrus County on Florida's west coast in 1993. But in December 1999, DCF found he was not ''likely'' to commit a new sex crime -- and he was freed from prison.

Eight months later, he pulled a teenage girl into his car and raped her twice. He has since been sent back to prison.

Records show nearly 70 percent of the men who are referred for civil commitment had one victim even though experts say those who pose the greatest threat to women and children are often those with multiple victims -- like Conley.

''The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior,'' said Fred Berlin, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and one of the country's leading sexual offender researchers. ``So, clearly those with multiple offenses are the most dangerous.''

In Washington state, only those who pose the highest risk -- violent offenders -- are eligible for commitment. In Florida, that's not the case: 40 percent of the offenders considered for the program were not convicted of violent crimes, records show.

Ganey

John Ganey Jr. and Darrell Mikler were both convicted of violent sexual crimes in separate cases, but neither were sent to Florida's treatment center.

Ganey, 43, left prison in December 2000 after serving three years for sexual battery.

Less than a year later, he lured a 9-year-old Tallahassee girl into the woods around her home and raped her three times. When the girl told her father what happened, he found his daughter bleeding so badly he had to rush her to a hospital where she underwent surgery.