Not to get something started but you all do realize that charging them with misdemeanors is just a way to get them into the court system and on the docket. I don't expect anything to really take place there but it does have them enter the system.  Prosecutors will only charge to the level that can be proven and the weekend lawyers around here don't even know if that statute that you want to prosecute them for is on the book (read the manslaughter portion of Alaska State Law). I can see a false imprisonment charge added on.
As for the level of abuse or neglect- you know what the newspaper reported, there could much more or it could be sensationalized ( I doubt that). We all want to pillory them but hey, we have hit and run murderer getting 4 months in jail. 
My solution is simple- carve out a 20 square mile of the most isolated of the Brooks range, surround it with a simple 20 foot electric fence with  and drop folks like this there- let them fend for themselves or die trying.