Former Chicago police commander Jon Burge has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for obstruction of justice and lying about torturing prisoners into making confessions. Burge was convicted in June following longtime accusations of overseeing the systematic torture of more than a hundred African American men. The police department fired him in 1993 for mistreatment of a suspect, but did not press charges. Burge was ultimately indicted in 2007 — not for the torture itself, but for lying about it. After the verdict, several victims of torture under Burge as well as the prisoners’ family members denounced the verdict as a slap on the wrist.

Mark Clements: “This is a complete injustice. Four-and-a-half years where men have spent 20 and 30 years in prison is outrageous.”

Robin Hobley: “Burge gets four years, five years, then he goes home. That’s not right. My brother spent 16 years on death row for something he didn’t do.”

Burge will begin serving his jail sentence in March.