What’s a life worth? Apparently 25 years, which translates to maybe 10 years in prison for torturing your child to death reports The Chicago Tribune.

COOK COUNTY — The mother of a 12-year-old girl beaten to death with an electrical cable in her home in 2001 was sentenced to 25 years in prison Monday by a Cook County Criminal Court judge.

Constance Slack, 42, was sentenced by Judge Thomas Sumner after she pleaded guilty to first-degree murder charges last month in the death of her daughter, Laree. Constance Slack was expected to testify against her husband, Larry, last week as part of the agreement, but prosecutors did not call her to testify.

The state instead relied on the testimony of two of Laree’s siblings who witnessed her beating.

Prosecutors have said that Larry Slack delivered hundreds of blows to Laree after tying her to a bed frame and that he also had his wife hit the girl with the cable.

What ever happened to 25 years to LIFE for beating a child until their last wimper of breath is mercilessly taken? I don’t understand why we have become so complacent about acts of heinous torture against minors, and by the very people that are supposed to protect them. Every day, I still hear about Natalie Holloway and the great injustice of Aruban officials in not doing everything they can to bring her perpetrators to justice, yet a child who is beaten do death in Chicago gets a little snippet in a Chicago paper and apathy abounds. While one could argue that at least this girls assailants were found and brought to justice in contrast to Natalie Holloway’s case, does a sentence which is insulting to the 12 year old’s life make anyone feel any better about that?