Florida Mother Jailed for Keeping Children Caged

This is the kind of story that makes me think we should punish people by doing to them exactly what they did to their victims. How could a sicko like this even be able to adopt children in the first place? This story originally came from here.

A Florida mother has been jailed for 20 years for keeping her teenage adopted son in a cage.

The 17-year-old weighed 22kg (3st 7lb) when child welfare workers found him in 2005.

He suffered from severe medical and emotional problems. His mother, Brenda Sullivan, told a judge at the time that authorities told her to keep the boy in a crib.

In January she pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated child abuse. Prosecutors agreed to drop lesser child neglect charges.

"There's only one conclusion when you look at the medical evidence in this case, and that is that she literally starved him," said the prosecutor, Julie Schlax.

Sullivan's husband was also arrested but died in January 2007 while awaiting trial.

Two other children, 13-year-old twins the couple adopted as infants, testified that they were kept in similar cages.

Sullivan's lawyer, Charles Fletcher, said prison was not the right option because she did not pose a threat to society. He said they would appeal the sentence.