As the killers of James Bulger come up soon for consideration for parole, many people are asking the question: Should James's killers be released soon? We listen in on on the debate from the Mirror.

Yes  says Research Director at crime-reduction charity NACRO and a member of the Youth Justice Board ...

How to deal fairly with young children who commit the gravest crimes? This question presents problems in all societies. It involves balancing the interests of the victim, the community and the offender and is ultimately a moral exercise which gives rise to strong emotions on every side. 

If the shocking murder of James Bulger had taken place a few months earlier, neither Jon Venables nor Robert Thompson could have been charged with any criminal offence at all. There would have been no crown court trial, no life sentence and no minimum period of detention set by judges, Home Secretaries, the European court or anyone else. But because the two boys were just over the age of criminal responsibility, the long and controversial process was set in train which has just ended. 

It is the very young age at which Jon and Robert committed the horrific crime that has raised such difficult dilemmas. Nobody accepts that children are as responsible for their actions as adults are. Their minds, their morals and ability to control their impulses are still developing. That is why we do not allow them to drink, smoke, have sex or vote and why we compel them to attend school. 

The capacity children have to develop and change is reflected in the system we have for dealing with youngsters who behave badly. 

Most countries do not put children in front of criminal courts however heinous their crime until they are 12, 14 or even 16. Under those ages criminal behaviour is dealt with by measures designed solely with the welfare of the youngster in mind. 

In the most serious cases this can involve living in a closed institution for a time if the public are at risk. The purpose is not punishment, however, but helping children grow into law-abiding adults. Education, treatment and the resolution of underlying problems is the hallmark of this approach. 

In our UK system, children over 10 are punished, but the nature and extent of that punishment reflects the special status and needs of children. 

The Lord Chief Justice yesterday decided that eight years was the right period Venables and Thompson should serve as punishment. This is the same period that the trial judge, having heard all of the deeply disturbing evidence, recommended at the end of the original trial in 1994. 

It means that the two boys will have spent almost half their lives locked up. 

The decision does not mean that they will automatically be freed. The Parole Board must first be satisfied about any risk which they present. Research suggests that risks in cases like this are very low indeed. It is possible that the board may think that further treatment is needed. 

Even when they are released they will be under close supervision and liable to be detained again. Even the most minor offending or failure to keep in touch with their supervisors could result in recall.

The sentence of Detention at Her Majesty's Pleasure to which the boys are subject is one which lasts for life even though the larger part of it is served in the community. The task of reintegration for these boys will not be easy. 

Opportunities to do the normal things which teenagers do will have been extremely limited. Spending money, visiting shops, going to the pictures, choosing friends will all be new experiences. They are likely to have to start a new life in a new area with new identities. They will need continuing specialist help as well as supervision. 

By all accounts they have made good progress while in detention. Prolonging that detention and in particular a move to an adult prison would only start to undo that progress. Evidence and experience suggests that in cases like this transitions into the community can be successfully made. Much will depend on whether they are allowed to put their past behind them and attempt to construct something approaching a normal life. 

Rehabilitating into the community all those who have paid their dues and making tireless efforts to find the best ways of responding to crime were for Winston Churchill a measure of the stored-up strength of a nation and the sign and proof of the living virtue in it.  Ninety years on we must be strong enough as a country to allow two citizens who have offended so grievously when so young to take up their place in society.

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No  says Ex-Merseyside detective superintendent who led the murder hunt ...

It was the most savage thing I ever saw ... almost too much to take in. Robert Thompson and Jon Venables had inflicted terrible butchery on two-year-old James Bulger. Together they lured him away, tortured and murdered him. 

His head was left like a pulp, smashed with bricks and bludgeoned with a 22lb iron bar.  Paint had been thrown over his face and he was naked from the waist down. His tiny body — beaten with batteries — had been abandoned, only to be sliced in two by a train. 

Yet James's killers have probably been given a better start in life than most kids in Liverpool. 

Their eight years in detention have meant they've had the best possible care and treatment.  They can go on to better themselves, probably get a good job when they come out.  That's as it should be. We have to give them a chance to do something decent with their lives. 

But where is the punishment in all this? There isn't any. 

You can call it tariff, you can call it punishment but I think it's punishment and as adults they should be punished for what they've done. Eight years is woefully inadequate — even for an event that happened when they were 10 years of age. 

The right time for Thompson and Venables to be released is in their early twenties. It's then that they will be more qualified to rejoin society. In the meantime they should go into an adult jail. It wouldn't detract from the rehabilitation work that has already been done. But I feel that if you're punished for something as an adult then it stays with you a lot longer.  If they are deprived of their liberty as young adults it will live with them much longer. 

Surely the prison system should be able up to deal with them properly. Their treatment should be automatically geared up to continue into adulthood. To use it as an excuse for letting them out is totally unacceptable — it should never have been a lever to justify why they should be released early. 

I'm flabbergasted by Lord Chief Justice Woolf's decision — just astounded that he has set the tariff so ridiculously low. I think it's bloody awful. I've always believed that eight years was not enough and I hoped that now it would have been set realistically. Although I always thought Michael Howard was right in imposing 15 years, I felt that this time it was going to be set at ten. 

Just bear in mind the severity of what actually took place. 

No one in their wildest dreams could have envisaged that two 10-year-old boys could have mutilated that tiny body to such an extreme. It was so gruesome that it wasn't highlighted at the time to save the feelings of the Bulger family.  There is no way in which the eight-year tariff takes that into account. 

Lord Woolf says that he is "mindful of the horrendous nature" of the crime and the effect on the family. But I don't think that can be the case. What kind of message does it send out to impose a tariff that is so low? The wrong message completely. 

We cannot tolerate this kind of criminal behaviour, irrespective of age. 

I just feel very, very sorry for James's parents. 

I'm disappointed — for them and for me. 

We did everything possible to make the legal process as decent as we could for James's killers. 

Afterwards recommendations were made — that are now implemented — to make the courts more user-friendly for young offenders to be tried in. Thompson and Venables were never the victims in this. They were the perpetrators and they should pay the proper price. For now they should stay inside. 

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