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A federal appeals court had rejected two previous sentencings of Carolyn Jackson and John E. Jackson by U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden as too lenient.
Hayden, however, said Wednesday that she believed more time behind bars would be "more punishment than is necessary" for abusing the children, all of whom were less than 4 years old and developmentally delayed.
The judge sentenced Carolyn Jackson, 44, who already served a 40-month federal prison term in two stretches, to time served with an additional year of supervised release.
John E. Jackson, 46, who'd completed probation after being discharged from the Army, got home confiement for 18 months.
The four-month2015 trial was held in federal court before Hayden because the Jacksons lived at the the Picatinny Arsenal Installation, a military facility in Morris County. Child endangerment isn't a federal crime, so the government pursued conspiracy and assault convictions.
Government prosecutors told jurors that the Jacksons "conspired to engage in a constant course of neglect and cruelty towards three children they fostered and then adopted," Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Rachael Honig said.
"The Jacksons told their biological children not to report the physical assaults to others, saying that the punishments and disciplinary techniques were justified, as they were 'training' the adopted children how to behave," Honig said.
"After John Jackson was informed by a family friend that the oldest biological child had revealed the abuse in the Jackson household, John Jackson reported the breach to Carolyn Jackson, who retaliated against that biological child by beating the child 30 times with a belt," the U.S. attorney added.
Honig said the couple also:
- physically assaulted their adopted children with various objects, causing two children to sustain fractured bones (including a fractured spine, fractured skull and fractured upper arms);
- failed to seek prompt medical attention for their injuries;
- withheld sufficient nourishment and food from them;
- withheld adequate water from two of their children and, at times, prohibited them from drinking water altogether;
- forced two of the children to consume foods intended to cause them pain and suffering, such as red pepper flakes and hot sauce, and;
- caused one child to ingest excessive sodium or sodium-laden substances while being deprived of water, leading to a life-threatening condition on two separate occasions in two states.
"The Jacksons even punished one adopted child, who had to resort to sneaking food and drinking from the toilet, by hitting the child, making the child ingest hot sauce, and forcing the child to eat a raw onion like an apple," Honig said.
Federal jurors convicted the couple of several counts of child endangerment while acquitting them of assault. Prosecutors, in turn, argued for sentences of at least 15 years.
Carolyn Jackson got 24 months in prison and her husband got probation while being ordered to complete 400 hours of community service when Hayden first sentenced them in December 2015.
The government appealed their sentences to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which ruled in July 2017 that Hayden "had committed several errors in the process of imposing those sentences," Honig said.
At an April 2018 re-sentencing, Carolyn Jackson got the lengthier 40-month sentence and her husband received probation again.
The government appealed once again and the appeals panel vacated the sentences, sending them back to Hayden after finding errors.
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday asked Hayden for nine to 11 years.
They ended up objecting to the judge's eventual decision, which they said didn't follow the appeals court's guidelines.
Hayden said the couple "misguided and harmful choices” but, for her, the testimony and evidence didn't show that the Jacksons are "monsters."
Testimony in the trial showed that three of the Jacksons' foster children suffered broken bones and were severely underweight, among other health issues, when they were removed from the home in 2010.
The couple’s biological son testified that his parents forced the children to eat hot pepper flakes and drink hot sauce as punishment.
A fourth foster child in their care died, but a lawyer for the couple argued that the youngster had pre-existing health problems.
The Jacksons have lost custody of all their adoptive and biological children, Honig noted.
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