Yet the agency never bothered to provide funds for its own recommendation, forcing Liberty to divert staff from its sexual offender treatment program - the facility's primary mission - which already suffers from staffing shortages and provides as little as two hours of therapy a week. So far, the special therapeutic unit is not even run by a psychiatrist. It is overseen by a man who holds no mental health license in Florida.

Mental healthcare for men like Contrillo and Myers is at the heart of a federal class-action suit against the state. The case, filed in federal district court in Fort Myers, claims the program is failing to provide constitutionally adequate mental healthcare in what is supposed to be a mental health facility - not a prison. Other facilities are guided by laws guaranteeing adequate care, but DCF waived those rules for the treatment center on Feb. 5, 2001.

``It's more evidence that it is providing constitutionally inadequate care for these people,'' said Kristen Cooley Lentz, the lead attorney in the class-action suit.

When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld civil commitment for sexually violent predators in 1997, it said the conditions should mirror those found in state mental institutions. Yet the state spends more than twice as much at other mental health facilities as it does at the Florida Civil Commitment Center, records show.

``It's remarkable what is going on over there,'' said Robert Bellino, a psychiatrist who worked at the center for 41/2 years. ``But nothing is going to change, because no one is going to spend the money.''