David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

want to do everything we can to get you
back in school, to help you get a high
school diploma, to bring services to
your family, find out what’s needed in
the household. We will provide job
opportunities, educational opportunities,
medical—everything we can. We want
to work with you. But the criminal
conduct has to stop. And if it doesn’t
stop and you get arrested for anything,
we’re going to do everything to keep you
in jail. I don’t care how minor it is. We
are going to be all over you.’”
The program was called J-RIP, for
Juvenile Robbery Intervention Program.
There was nothing complicated about it
—at least on the surface. J-RIP was
standard-issue, high-intensity modern