James "Jimmy" Alford was the kind of child whom the Department of Children & Families was supposed to protect. But he died, anyway - in a squalid shack on Hard Times Lane in Florida's Panhandle.

The home was rife with roaches, maggots and flies. And in the end, filth killed him.

Jimmy, 14, and his family had been the subject of 23 separate complaints to the state's child-abuse hot line. Over the years, he was beaten with a switch, smacked with a board. He suffered burned fingers, bloody welts.

Time and again, investigators from the Department of Children & Families visited his house, examined his injuries and made reports.

Still, he died last year, a casualty of questionable casework and poor care.

A Herald investigation of more than 2OO child deaths statewide has found that flawed probes on the part of the DCF may have contributed to the deaths of at least 100 Florida children over the past five years. That number could be even higher, The Herald found, because the DCF never thoroughly documented or investigated its own performance in some 80 child deaths.

Among the findings: Caseworkers and supervisors poorly evaluated the true danger to children, skipped safety checks on desperate children, blindly accepted caregivers' excuses when children turned up with suspicious injuries and failed to document family problems that DCF lawyers could have used to remove children from dangerous homes.

"This was a real red-light case, " said Dr. Michael Berkland, an Okaloosa medical examiner, of Jimmy Alford's death. "You had a mentally challenged child who needed assistance, he needed to be washed every time he went to school; his house was bug-riddled.

"How many more indicators did DCF need before yanking him?"

Despite Florida's emphasis on protecting children over the last decade, The Herald's analysis found that DCF caseworkers and supervisors made the same mistakes over and over again.

Last month, The Herald reported that at least 37 children died of abuse or neglect since 1998 while warnings to the DCF about the children's peril went unresolved in so-called "backlog, " despite state laws mandating prompt investigations within 30 to 60 days.

But those cases account for only a portion of the death toll.

The problems run much deeper: Even when the DCF does investigate, lapses in the handling of allegations often leave young children in danger. DCF Secretary Jerry Regier, who took over the agency in August, said the loss of life is unacceptable.

"The protection of children, in terms of safety, is absolutely a priority, " Regier said.

SHOCKING SITUATION

"I'm still reeling from these kind of numbers, " DCF spokesman Bob Brooks said. "The loss of one child is tragic enough. It really leaves me speechless. It points out the need for additional training."

Brooks said Regier has already taken steps to prevent future tragedies. For example, he has instituted procedures to better track abuse and neglect complaints and reduce the backlog of cases.

"This is the kind of thing that makes you redouble your commitment to make sure this does not happen again, " Brooks said. "This secretary is committed to Florida's children and improving the department."

Richard Gelles, interim dean of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Work, has studied hundreds of child-death cases.

"I'd say for a majority, a very large majority, the primary cause is an accumulation of bad casework, " he said.