9 Investigates

9 Investigates hundreds of sex predators housed in Florida facility

It’s not a prison, yet it costs twice as much.

There are no inmates, yet there are high fences and razor wire.

There are no inmates. There are patients, however, and some have been there since it opened.

Just 120 miles south of Orlando, is the small town of Arcadia.

Arcadia is the county seat of DeSoto County, and also home of the Florida Civil Commitment Center and more than 600 convicted sex offenders.

Now, there are fresh questions about what kind of treatment offenders are receiving at the costly, privately-run facility.

“This is the worst place that society puts the worst of the worst,” said a convicted sex offender, who asked only to be identified as “Mike.”

Mike spent a year in Arcadia, and agreed to speak 9 Investigates on the condition of anonymity.

“You’re put in solitary confinement for the first four days while you’re being classified. They call it a welcome room,” Mike said.

Mike spent 13 years in a Florida prison for non-contact sex offenses.

At the end of his 13-year sentence, he was sent to Arcadia for treatment.

“It’s like you are actually going into a jail again. It’s like a prison,” says Mike.  “It’s a long process to even get into treatment. They were so under-staffed at the time.”

A state report from 2014 found problems at the facility ranging from staffing issues to overcrowding.  Mike said a lack of treatment options caused him to be arrested while confined to the center.

“I had three months of probation that I would have served on the outside. Instead, I served it in there. A couple of days after treatment I get arrested and brought back to the Orange County Jail from Arcadia,” Mike said.  “They said it was for not participating in a treatment program. Because they didn’t put me on the list, I got arrested and sent back to the Orange County Jail.”

The Florida Department of Children and Families, which runs Florida Civil Commitment Center, said it has since taken steps to correct staffing and overcrowding.

“Through highly controlled treatment, sexually violent predators can learn how to live productive lives in society and not reoffend. The average length of stay for a person committed to the FCCC is six years,” wrote DCF spokesperson Jessica Sims in an email to 9 Investigates.

But questions remain about what kind of treatment patients receive and if it is possible to alter sex offender’s behavior.

“There doesn’t seem to be any sure science about who can control their behaviors or not,” says former public defender Michael Martinko.  “The best clinical judgment review was no better than randomly selecting persons to determine if they would reoffend.”

DCF disagrees, saying it uses, “evidence-based, sex offender specific treatment” to treat those at the facility.

According to the most recent numbers provided to 9 Investigates by DCF, there are only 603 residents at the FCCC, down from 683 in March of 2012.  Florida has a multi-year contract with the private prison group Correct Care Recovery Solutions for more than $270 million.