"We're the monsters they talk about on the news. We're the ones you're supposed to be afraid of." (Intake, 16)

"God made me so I could do terrible things. Why couldn't God help me learn how to be a father?" (Intake, 19)

"And so, on May 15th, 1967, Gerry Gault's adolescent prank had the extraordinary effect of bringing every juvenile court in every state of the Union to a grinding halt so that lawyers and court reporters and all the other trappings of real courtrooms could be put into place. When they started up again, the way in which society dealt with its troubled youth had forever changed." (Prologue, 25)

"The first thing you learn about this place is that nothing works." (Chapter 1, 31)

"I'm pretty sure I'll convict him. But I don't think anyone's going to win." (Chapter 2, 56)

"We have to live with this simply because someone, somewhere, decided decades ago, based...