The former foster parents of five children who endured years of abuse in what prosecutors have called a "house of torture" were sentenced yesterday to one year behind bars.

Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall also sentenced Gabriel and Barbara Kalama to five years of probation.

Prosecutors had asked for five years in prison for Gabriel Kalama, alleging he beat one child with a belt "for jumping on the bed" and forced another to eat a sibling's feces. After the hearing yesterday, deputy city prosecutor Lori Wada called the sentencing a "miscarriage of justice."

Prosecutors say the abuse started in 2004, when the children were between 10 and 14 years old. The five were removed from the Kalamas' Wai'anae home in 2006. Rita Makekau, the children's aunt, also lived at the home with the children and has been called the "worst offender" in the abuse of the children. On Friday, she was sentenced to five years behind bars.

Wada yesterday said she is "disappointed" at the sentences for Makekau and Gabriel Kalama. Wada had been seeking 41 years in prison for Makekau and five for Kalama.

Prosecutors struck a plea agreement with Barbara Kalama, 28, and were seeking the one-year term with probation for her. She pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree child endangerment and six counts of abusing a household member.

Gabriel Kalama, 31, pleaded no contest to two counts of second-degree assault and five counts of family abuse.

The victims, all siblings, were Barbara Kalama's cousins.

The Kalamas originally were the children's foster parents and later became their legal guardians. The children — three boys and two girls — are now with other foster families who are distant relatives.

Prosecutors have called the mental and physical abuse of the five children heinous and shocking. The children said Makekau chipped their teeth with a hammer or beat them when they misbehaved. They also went without food for as long as a week and were forced to sleep under the house with dogs and bugs, without warm clothes as a punishment.

The children kept silent about the abuse until the oldest boy told a friend. That friend told his mother, who then told police, Wada has said.

"This is the first case that I ever cried after reading," Wada said.

The Kalamas originally became foster parents to the five children after authorities removed them from the care of their natural mother. The court appointed the couple legal guardians of the children in 2000.

The Kalamas were seeking probation only in the abuse case.

Their attorneys said the two have worked to improve their parenting and anger management skills with classes.

The Kalamas have four children of their own and are raising a fifth child Barbara Kalama had by a previous relationship. Those children remain with the Kalamas because the parents have agreed to accept state services and monitoring of the family.