You may remember this case. I know I'll never forget it.

Vanessa Jackson, Collingswood, N.J., was sentenced yesterday to seven years in state prison after pleading guilty to one count of endangering the welfare of a child, a massive understatement of what most observers believe she did to the four adopted children placed in her care amid an incredible failure of supervision by state authorities.

For local media coverage, see "'You Took My Childhood,'" by Kristen A. Graham in the Philadelphia Inquirer; "Brothers Vent Their Righteous Anger," by Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney, which starts strongly with this lead: "So this is what judgment day looks like: Four innocent kids, starved by their own mother, finally getting a chance to turn the tables on the woman who wouldn't let them eat at one."; "7 Years in Prison for Starving 4 Boys," by Geoff Mulvihill of the Associated Press in the Philadelphia Daily News; and "Mother Gets 7-year Term for Neglect," by Lawrence Hajna in the Camden Courier Post.

Unfortunately, most of the links do not provide the photographs we have seen here in Philadelphia starkly comparing the condition of the oldest boy in Jackson's care, Bruce Jackson, now 21 years old, found two years ago weighing in at a clearly starved weight of just 45 pounds, with his current condition. We see in these images both the boy who appears to have been raised in a concentration camp and also what now finally appears to be a healthy, but stunted, young man, one who cannot be but badly scarred, mentally and physically, for life.

Unbelievably, Vanessa Jackson, who was passionately -- and shamefully and shamelessly -- defended in court yesterday by her obviously well-fed daughter LaRae Jackson, will be eligible for parole in just two years.

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