Sentencing? Where is the justice?

I never thought much about how people are sentenced for their crimes until I made a midlife career change and became a fulltime journalist in 2003.

Since then, one of the many things that has intrigued me is the seemingly arbitrary way people are sentenced.

Nothing seems consistent or makes much sense. People I expect to be sent away for a long time get short sentences and people I don’t think should spend much time behind bars get longer sentences.

I often talk with my colleague Randy Beach — who covers courts for the Register — about how confused I am about our justice system.

Many times when he returns to the newsroom from a trial and announces the sentence, I simply shake my head at how little time violent people with guns or people who have committed violent acts get behind bars.

I just don’t get it, and it seems to me as a reasonably intelligent adult, I shouldn’t need a law degree to understand how sentencing works in our judicial system.

The latest sentencing that has me confused — and fuming — is the sentence given to Natasha Figueroa, who stood by while two of her four daughters, ages 4 and 8, were burned and beaten and one raped by her then boyfriend, Michael Torres. The girls said they were beaten with broom handles and electrical cords.

Of the two girls who were abused, the younger one had to have four of her fingertips amputated after undergoing multiple surgeries at the Burn Unit of Bridgeport Hospital. One of the girls said her mother held her feet while Torres held her over the stove and put her hand over the flame.

Authorities described the apartment where Figueroa and Torres were living with five children as “piled with garbage, vomit and urine” and infested with bugs crawling up the walls. The two girls described eating out of the garbage while their parents had the good food.

It is a pretty sad story and, unfortunately, one filled with the horror of what many children in this state and millions nationwide are facing.

But Figueroa was only charged with risk of injury to a minor and only sentenced to three years in jail.

In case there is any confusion over what I just wrote, let me rewrite it: The mother who stood by and assisted her then boyfriend in holding two of her daughter’s hands over a fire on the kitchen stove, and then did not stop him from sexually assaulting one of her daughters, received a mere three years behind bars from a New Haven judge.

Why?

She “cooperated” with the prosecution and testified against Torres.

Three years behind bars for listening to your own children scream in terror and pain while being beaten, burned and raped. Three years for breaking the sacred bond and trust that every child has with his or her mother. Three years for the permanent psychological damage these children — who are in therapy — will endure.

It is enough to make me vomit on the steps of Superior Court.

The judge described Torres as “evil” and sentenced him to 60 years for the sexual crime. Torres also was sentenced to 28 years for assault, unlawful restraint and risk of injury to a minor for acts against the same young girl.

There is no doubt that Torres is “evil,” but why isn’t the mother described the same way and why was her sentence as light as souffle? The prosecutor asked the judge to impose a sentence against Torres “that will keep this defendant from harming any other child.” But what about the mother? Her children have been taken away — and there is a protective order preventing her from having any contact with them — but she is 31 and nothing can prevent her from having more children and allowing another boyfriend to abuse them.

The mother’s attorney defended her client by saying she also was a battered victim who had been physically abused through a series of relationships, in particular Michael Torres.

Well, excuse me if I have no sympathy for her because she continues to pick the wrong man — and please don’t bother sending me a bunch of emails telling me how horrible I am to make that statement.

The mother can run for help; she can call the police for help; she can turn to friends for help. The children are helpless.

I may be confused as to how the judicial system works, but I am never confused about the abuse children experience at the hands of adults.

I was an abused child and I strongly feel the misery these children went through.

I, too, remember being small and helpless while an adult raged war on my body. Decades later, the damage is still with me. And so, likely, it will be with the little girl as she grows and looks at her missing fingers and scarred skin and relives that forced sexual act again and again.

Here in the United States, child protection agencies received more than 3.6 million referrals involving more than 6.6 million children in 2016. Up to seven children die every day from child abuse and neglect, the Washington-based Child Welfare Information Gateway reports.

And childhelp.com calls child abuse in the U.S. a “hidden epidemic” and a “widespread war against our children.”

But it seems not even in a court of law can they get the justice they deserve. Figueroa has been jailed since August 2015 and it is unclear if she has been released.

But whether she is in jail or out, perhaps lawmakers can explain to the public the fickleness of the judicial system.

I can’t be the only one who is confused how something like this can happen.

Sentencing? Where is the justice?

The latest sentencing that has me confused — and fuming — is the sentence given to Natasha Figueroa, who stood by while two of her four daughters, ages 4 and 8, were burned and beaten and one raped by her then boyfriend, Michael Torres. The girls said they were beaten with broom handles and electrical cords.