Christopher Michael Jensen, 27, of Cheswick Drive, was convicted of sexually abusing two boys he was supposed to be babysitting and was sentenced in July 2013 to 35 to 75 years in prison. He was 16 years old at the time.
It's not a big deal. The reduction is simply the recognition of the prisoner's right to take advantage of new law. It is not likely to change the length of time he will serve, as the article points out, because just being eligible for parole does not mean parole will be granted. He will be a pariah for life, in prison or out.
Certainly, based on the information available, his parents share in causing a great deal of the later damage, when they KNEW what he was up to with little kids, like his younger siblings, and made him sleep outside the house, so as to keep their other children safe from his predations. And then they had the gall to still recommended him as a babysitter!
They "knew or should have known" what he was doing and/or would do. We'll never know for sure, but if the civil case had gone to the jury, they likely would have been seriously spanked (as in the size of the damages they'd have to pay) by the jury. I don't know if they were held to respond financially for part of the settlement. Odds are that they had to pump in whatever liability insurance money was available to them.
As far as a crime...? Much tougher.
Crude example: if you're driving and you come upon a bridge that has fallen, but you're able to stop in time, and you turn around to head away, is it a crime, as in punishable by fine and/or imprisonment, for you not to warn other drivers? When does 'duty' rise to the level of it being a crime for not performing that 'duty'? Civil penalties could apply, but criminal penalties?
So while I would have loved for his parents to do some prison time, I wasn't expecting it.