A US judge has freed the Idaho woman whose six children held off police for five days.

A court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support a child neglect charge against JoAnn McGuckin.

Her unconditional release allows her the right to see her children without supervision, but she still faces a custody battle for the return of her children who are now in foster care. She also faces a lesser misdemeanour charge which she has denied.

Last month, her children, aged eight to 16, held authorities at bay with guns to stop themselved being taken into care after their mother's arrest. The children's father, Michael McGuckin, had died shortly before of multiple sclerosis.

The court heard that the family's eldest daughter, 19-year-old Erina McGuckin, who left home last year, had complained to authorities about the living conditions at their home which was said to be dirty, squalid, with no running water, little or no heat and intermittent electricity.

But another daughter Kathryn, 16, said the family had been under extreme stress for several years because both parents were sick which led to household chores not getting done.