No parole in case of starved boys

Vanessa Jackson, the Collingswood woman who pleaded guilty in 2005 to starving her four adopted sons, has been denied parole, the Camden County Prosecutor's Office said yesterday.

Jackson and her husband, Raymond, were charged after their adopted son Bruce was discovered sifting a neighbor's trash in October 2003, looking for food. Although he was 19 at the time, Bruce Jackson stood just 4 feet tall and weighed 45 pounds.

His three younger adopted brothers were also severely undersize.

The Jackson case drew international headlines and put pressure on the state child welfare agency, which already was reeling from a series of deaths and public missteps.

All four brothers - Bruce, Keith, Tyrone and Michael - entered the Jackson home as foster children, and social workers who visited the home were accused of overlooking their emaciated condition. Prosecutors considered filing charges against the child welfare workers.

The state eventually paid the brothers $12.5 million to settle a federal civil lawsuit.

Raymond Jackson died of a stroke in 2004, before his criminal case reached the courts. Vanessa Jackson pleaded guilty to child endangerment a year later.

In her plea, she admitted to failing to provide the boys with adequate nutrition and medical care. She was sentenced to seven years in prison.

The state Parole Board issued its decision on Vanessa Jackson in June and said she could not re-apply for release until June 2009.

Friends and supporters have portrayed the Jacksons as loving parents who took in difficult foster children. The four brothers all had preexisting psychological and eating disorders, they said. The couple's four grown biological children were all of normal weight and height, as were two adopted girls and a foster daughter in the home.

In an interview with New York magazine shortly before his death, Raymond Jackson said Bruce Jackson had often gorged himself on food and had lied about conditions in the home.

But prosecutors said Bruce Jackson and his brothers had subsisted mainly on pancake batter and oatmeal.

In the first year after being removed from the home, Bruce gained 100 pounds and grew a foot. The younger brothers also showed large gains in height and weight.

"We believe the seriousness of the offenses, the pain these boys endured and the serious, long-term harm they sustained warrants this decision, and we applaud it," said acting Camden County Prosecutor Joshua M. Ottenberg.