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Sexually violent predators who've been civilly committed after serving their time would become the responsibility of the state Department of Corrections instead of the Department of Mental Health under a bill introduced in the House.

The Legislature in 1998 required these offenders to be confined and treated after serving their criminal sentences. It gave that responsibility to Mental Health.

The new bill, H3376, introduced last week, would transfer that task to Corrections, said Rep. Dan Cooper, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and a sponsor of the bill.

"We passed a bill several years ago that remanded custody of sexually violent predators to the Department of Mental Health when they completed their sentences because they have a 95 percent recidivism rate and they are going to repeat, more than likely," said Cooper, R-Anderson. "But we're running into a housing issue."

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Offenders are currently housed in an 88-bed wing of the Broad River Correctional Institute, said Mark Binkley, general counsel for the Department of Mental Health. But because the number of offenders has been increasing by three or four a month to 87 this week, arrangements have been made to double-bunk, which means two men in a cell, he said.

"Nobody thinks double-bunking is a good idea," he said. "But we've been seeking other space for some time without success."

In lieu of extra space, the department has requested $45 million to build a 200-bed facility, he said.

By switching responsibility to Corrections, the bill would put the burden where it should be for sexually violent predators, said Rep. Gary Smith of Greenville.

"They have the facilities and the resources that are more capable of handling these persons than Mental Health does," he said.

But state Attorney General Henry McMaster opposes the measure because it could open the current program to "serious constitutional challenges" since the law calls for civil confinement, said Mark Plowden, communications director.

"The problem is you cannot be confined in the Department of Corrections after you have completed your sentence without committing another crime," Plowden said.

"If this law and program are deemed unconstitutional, it's entirely likely these individuals would be released onto the street. And Attorney General McMaster believes that would be a horrendous, perhaps even deadly, mistake."

Mental Health has no position on the bill, which has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee, Binkley said.

But the bill has the support of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said David Almeida, executive director of the South Carolina chapter. That's because placing sexually violent predators under the purview of Mental Health unnecessarily stigmatizes people with mental illness and diverts money from underfunded mental health programs, he said.

"The last thing we need is to lump rapists and child molesters into the same category as people with bipolar disorder and depression," he said.