The Department of Children & Families -- the agency tasked with overseeing the program -- has struggled for years to persuade the Legislature to increase the budget to maintain order at a facility that has been absorbing more offenders every year.

As the population soared more than 300 percent, the center's budget increased just 46 percent. In fact, when broken down by the amount spent per offender, funding for the treatment center has actually decreased.

In the program's first year, the DCF estimated that it would cost $27 million to run the program. The Legislature provided $17 million.

In 2002, the agency requested an increase of $8.6 million to "meet the public safety goal of the Jimmy Ryce Act." It received no additional funding.

In 2003, it asked for $1 million because "the need for new funding to operate the facility in a safe manner has become quite critical." Again, no increase.

So in 2004, as drugs, alcohol, sex, child pornography and a band of disgruntled offenders disrupted what is supposed to be a calm, therapeutic setting, the facility had no way of maintaining order.

The DCF had to pay the Department of Corrections $2 million to ship in 300 officers and conduct a raid on the center just to get the men to comply with orders from the state fire marshal. During the raid, officers searched offenders' rooms and found more than eight gallons of homemade alcohol and other contraband.

After the raid, the Legislature provided an additional $2.6 million in last May for more security at the center. But experts say that's not enough to fix the center's woes.

"Those of us who are in this business know what it costs to fund a top-notch program that does the job. It's not a mystery," said Ted Shaw, a Gainesville psychologist who is one of Florida's leading sexual offender experts.

While Florida spends about $50,000 per offender for its treatment program, states including California, Washington, Wisconsin and Minnesota pay twice as much.

THE F DORM
STRUGGLING WITH MENTAL ILLNESS

On the second floor of a stout two-story building called F Dorm, nearly three- dozen men who suffer from the most severe mental illnesses are tucked away with little hope of getting out.

The men struggle with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and developmental disabilities with little or no specialized treatment for mental illnesses that are so severe that it's almost impossible to treat them for their sexual disorders, staff members say.

Doug Shadle, a former clinician at the center, said that because the men are sexual offenders, "nobody cares'' about the severity of their condition.

"You couldn't get away with it anywhere else," he said.