COEUR d'ALENE - A judge Wednesday denied motions to reduce prison terms for the mother and grandmother responsible for the neglect, filth and injuries suffered by twin 2-year-old girls in their care.

Elisabeth C. Crossley and her mother Ruth K. Cassidy were sentenced in April 2011 in 1st District Court in Kootenai County for felony injury to the girls. They were given five years in prison, with two years of that being mandatory. They'll be eligible for parole in the third year.

Defense lawyers argued the women now have served enough time locked up. The lawyers said there are other ways to punish the women, and that they could get better mental health care if released and could contribute to society by working.

"(Crossley) has served enough prison time," said her public defender, Anne Taylor. "She feels awful about the conditions her daughters were in."

Taylor added, "They won't be in Elisabeth's care ever again."

Crossley is serving her sentence at the Pocatello Women's Correctional Center, and Cassidy is in Bonneville County jail.

The women were arrested in December 2010. The twin girls were found Dec. 5, 2010, living in the filthiest conditions Coeur d'Alene police have ever witnessed.

Crossley and Cassidy were arrested after the twins were found sealed off in a bedroom, with no clothes, bedding or furniture. A passerby alerted police to the danger the twins were in at Cassidy's apartment on the 1200 block of North Lincoln Way in Coeur d'Alene.

The girls were covered in fecal matter, as were the walls and floor of the bedroom. They had bruising on various parts of their bodies and open sores. Police were sickened by the conditions, with at least one officer retching upon entering the room.

Taylor said Crossley would like to go live in San Diego with her father, and seek employment there working with computers. Crossley suffers from depression, anxiety and social disorders, which a doctor has said affects her ability to function.

Kootenai County deputy prosecutor Donna Gardner said, "This is not just a case about neglect, but abuse."

She objected to any early release for the two women.

The twins were forced to live in "horrendous" conditions, Gardner said.

District Court Judge John Luster said Crossley is an intelligent woman who should have sought help for her disorders.

He said those disorders are no excuse for the crime, and his sentence last spring was carefully considered, was below the 10-year maximum, and therefore was appropriate.

He said it might never be known how much damage was done to the twins by the neglect and abuse.