During the hearing on Friday, the children revealed some disturbing details of their captivity. One of the daughters said that the children had been shackled because their parents were afraid they were consuming too much sugar and caffeine. But her parents continued buying bottles of soda, she said, because if their father did not have it, he might fall asleep while driving and get into an accident.

Some of the children described their household as a religious place where they believed what was happening to them was God’s will. One of them quoted a Bible verse about trusting in God.

Their words evoked the strange mix of terror and unreality that reigned in the household. The young woman who described herself as a fighter said: “I saw my dad change my mom. They almost changed me.”

Another daughter said her parents decided on home schooling because people criticized them for having so many children. “It worked out good at first,” especially after they moved from Texas to California, she said.

She said the family had passes to Disneyland and went to the Grand Canyon. She asked the judge for leniency. “I feel like 25 years is too long,” she said. “I believe with all my heart that our parents tried their best to raise all 13 of us. They wanted to give us a good life, and they did everything they could to protect us.”

To their neighbors, the family seemed normal, if reclusive. Mr. Turpin, 57, had been an engineer for Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Ms. Turpin, 50, apparently stayed at home. They lived in a nondescript stucco house in the small, working-class city of Perris, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles. Neighbors rarely saw the children outside the home. It was neat on the outside, and so did not arouse suspicion. But it reeked of human waste on the inside, where the children were often not released from their shackles to go to the bathroom.

“We live in filth,” the 17-year-old said in the 911 call. “Sometimes I wake up and I can’t breathe because of how dirty the house is.” She said she had not bathed for almost a year.