What should happen to minors as young as 10 if they commit murder?

Answer 1

But although the youth incarceration rate in the U.S. continues to outpace all other wealthy nations (much like our overall incarceration rate), it's dropped significantly in the last decade. A series of Supreme Court decisions, state policy changes and plummeting crime rates since the late 1990s have resulted in major reductions in the youth prison population.

America's youth and adult prison population peaked in the late 1990, following a spiking crime rate and harsher sentencing laws. Youth incarceration, in particular, exploded: by 1997, more than 107,000 kids were behind bars, only about a quarter for violent offenses. Amid high crime rates and ultimately unfounded fears of a new generation of young "super predators," states rushed to lower the age at which youth could be tried and sentenced as adults, a move that lead to longer prison terms and an increased number of teenagers in adult prisons. California, followed suite, passing Proposition 21 in 2000, which required adult trials for juveniles 14 or older charged with murder or specified sex offenses.

By 2013, though, that number had dropped by roughly half, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Today there are about 54,000 incarcerated youth.

What happened?

By the early 2000s, the youth and adult crime rate started dropping sharply, and more states simply started to realize this strategy of harsh youth sentencing simply didn't make much sense. Not only were a growing number of kids leaving prison with psychological issues and a greater risk of committing more serious crimes, but the system was also extremely expensive. One recent study by the Justice Policy Institute found that for most states, it costs roughly $100,000 a year to incarcerate one kid, as opposed to $10,000 to pay for a year of public school education.

A trio of Supreme Court decisions also made it harder for states to slap youth with severe sentences. A 2004 decision abolished capital punishment for crimes committed by juveniles. And as a result of decisions in 2010 and 2012, states are now prohibited from imposing life sentences on juveniles. The court determined that such harsh sentencing of kids constituted cruel and unusual punishment, a decision that overturned mandatory sentencing policies in 28 states.