Foster Mom Jailed for Spanking Kid With Spoon

A wooden-spoon spanking is landing a Connecticut foster mom in jail for third-degree assault. Jami Littlefield, 51, will be sentenced to 100 days in prison and two years' probation after she pleaded guilty to hitting a 4-year-old girl with the utensil, the Day reports. The child was "acting out," telling Littlefield she was going to kill her and calling her a racial slur, Littlefield says. The girl's biological mother, Elisabeth Land, called the guilty plea a "victory."

According to court documents, Land spotted bruises on the girl's buttocks while on a supervised visit. After the child was seen by health workers, she and her brother were moved to a safe house. Littlefield had threatened her life if she revealed the spanking, the girl told authorities. "I want the world to know what happened to her because she was in a state-licensed foster home and she suffered these injuries," says Land, who hopes the family will eventually be able to take over the girl's care again. "This kind of thing is very rare," says an official, noting that Littlefield has now lost her foster-care license. (More spanking stories.)