For seven years, the state of South Carolina has sequestered its most dangerous sex offenders behind concrete walls and razor wire, locked away in a prison wing designed for death row inmates, even though they have already served their sentences.

But the state's top prosecutor says this approach is being threatened by dozens of legal challenges aimed at scuttling the law that allows authorities to lock up some offenders indefinitely for the purpose of treatment.

State Attorney General Henry McMaster supports the Sexually Violent Predator Act, but he worries that the program is vulnerable to attack in its current form. Housing predators in a prison wing bolsters arguments that they are being held as a punitive measure rather than as a vehicle for treatment, he said.

"My concern is to keep these predators somewhere where they can't hurt someone," he said "If a court strikes down that law, then we have a serious problem. There wouldn't be any way to keep these people out of the community when we know they are a threat."

But just what should the state do with people who have served their prison sentences but aren't safe to allow back into society? There is no firm consensus.

McMaster recently has been exploring the possibility of moving the predator program to a private prison hospital in Columbia. No firm cost analysis has been done, and such a move would require legislative approval. But McMaster said the proposal could provide a viable long-term solution to the predator problem.

Others, however, are exploring different avenues. Charleston County Probate Judge Jack Guedalia, who recently chaired a statewide committee that examined the predator programs, said he was approached by a Florida-based company interested in building a new high-security treatment facility to house the predators. The estimated cost of the project is about $20 million, he said.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Mental Health, which oversees the program, has no plans to move the operation anywhere, particularly in light of South Carolina's tight budget constraints, said John Hutto, a spokesman for the agency.

"I think the department realizes we need more space to manage the program successfully, but we also understand the realities of the budget," he said.

South Carolina is one of 17 states to enact laws under which sex offenders can be jailed for life in the name of public safety. Currently, 65 men deemed sexually violent predators are housed in a special unit at the maximum-security Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.

The sexual predator act requires a court hearing, similar to a trial, to decide whether a person suffers from a mental or personality disorder that makes him likely to commit sexually violent acts. Once confined, offenders receive mental health treatment, drug and alcohol counseling and other services aimed at helping them control their behaviors.

The men are separated from the general inmate population and can move about the unit with some freedom, but they live in old cells and must be shackled to leave the predator wing, which is located deep within the prison behind eight locked steel doors.

Dwindling space in the unit has been a persistent concern, but no solution has emerged. State mental health officials drew fire last year when a proposal surfaced to move the sexual predators to a more spacious home in the minimum-security Manning Correctional Institution. Officials downplayed the plan after McMaster threatened to take legal action to stop the move.

Though the sexual predator act has withstood court challenges, critics say it subjects a select few to more than the standard punishments of jail time, fines and probation and that its current setting is not conducive for treatment. As of June 30, 30 lawsuits were pending against the program, most filed by those within its walls.

Trey Walker, a spokesman for McMaster, said defending the program against legal challenges is like navigating a ship through torpedo-infested waters. The attorney general is concerned that one of these "legal torpedoes" might find its mark. "This is a nightmare scenario," he said.

McMaster recently toured the Columbia Care Center, a 318-bed private prison hospital run by Alabama-based Just Care Inc. He said the medium-security hospital might offer a more appropriate setting to treat the predators at far less cost than building a new facility. Officials, however, still need to assess the center's costs for care and compare its services with those offered by the state.

Tull Gerreald, chief executive officer of Just Care, said his company is interested in exploring the possibility of taking on the predator program, though the Columbia Care Center is near capacity. In addition to the standard mental health treatment, his faith-based company offers "a significant spiritual program," with help from 70 local church volunteers, he said.

"A faith-based program may be able to provide more hope to these folks than standard treatment alone," Gerreald said.

Guedalia, who worked with McMaster on the predator program committee, said he is concerned about moving sexual predators to a less secure facility where it might be difficult to separate them from other patients receiving care.

"You could end up going down a slippery slope, and the next thing you know they are out on satellite monitoring, which often provides a false sense of security," he said.

Guedalia said he thinks the predator act is solid from a legal standpoint, but he too would like to find a way to expand the program and its treatment options. To that end, the judge recently spoke with representatives from the GEO Group Inc., a Florida-based company that develops and manages prisons. Company officials have floated the idea of building a new, high-security predator facility on the grounds of the Broad River prison, Guedalia said. He has forwarded that information to state lawmakers.

GEO Group officials could not be reached for comment last week.

Any option the state chooses likely will cost more money, always a tough sell in a tight budget cycle. But supporters of a change argue that the alternative could be even more costly.

"If a lawsuit were to somehow shut down this program and these predators were allowed to walk out without any further treatment or supervision, that would be a crime in itself," McMaster said. "It's like sending bottles of nitroglycerin to school: You know something bad will happen."

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