Barely a month after being sentenced to life in prison, the Cleveland man who kidnapped and tortured three women hanged himself in his jail cell.

It hardly feels as if justice was served as Ariel Castro served a fraction of his sentence and didn’t experience any of the hell of imprisonment to which he subjected his captives.

Because he made a deal to avoid the death penalty, Castro was sentenced on Aug. 1 to serve life in prison plus 1,000 years after pleading guilty to more than 900 separate charges that included kidnapping and rape.

Castro’s death has sparked a wide range of emotions across the state and the entire nation, ranging from elation to anger to concern for the state’s prison system.

The reality is that this is not a black-and-white situation and all are valid emotional responses.

Many groups are crying foul and demanding an investigation. The state of Ohio should certainly ensure that all protocol was followed and that reasonable efforts were made to protect him from other inmates and himself.

However, it is difficult to see how it could have been handled differently. The man was checked on every 30 minutes.

Some have gone as far as saying that the prison system failed him. If anything, it failed his victims because the punishment ultimately didn’t come close to fitting the crime.

All we can do now is rely on our individual faiths and the belief that Ariel Castro will answer for his transgressions in a much higher court.