I'm not feeling a lot of sympathy for these girls, nor do I care really about their ages. An innocent man spent 8 months in jail based on their lies and they made it just that much harder for real crime victims to be taken seriously. That's the part that really burns my ass. They owe this man. They owe future crime victims who don't get taken seriously.
The question is what should their punishment be? Should they go to juvenile hall for several years? That's one option. Personally, I'd rather see them pay this man restitution based on the amount of time he served and the amount of time he was facing if convicted, rather than getting sent to juvenile hall, which is basically just a training camp for future adult offenders anyway. Of course, that option presents the next question: when, at their ages, do they start repaying this debt? That's not as easy to answer…