Marian Wright Edelman: Children Need Better Protection from Abuse and Neglect

In January 2008, four sisters were found dead in their southeast Washington, D.C. home. The girls, ages 5, 6, 11 and 17, had been murdered by their mother, Banita Jacks, months earlier. She was recently convicted and sentenced to 120 years in prison. None of the District of Columbia’s social service agencies or the police intervened to save the girls despite some alarming signs that they were in great peril. The Jacks case is by no means isolated.