Okay, I've got something of an idea for a short story kicking around my head, but I need some help. Basically, the setup is a psychologist is talking to a teenage girl, following an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Said girl is awaiting trial because she and a male friend had planned on shooting up the school. The closer the day came, the more she got cold feet. She was planning on just cutting and staying away from the school entirely, but eventually her conscience led her to go to the school, shoot her friend in the head just before he's able to kill anyone. Afterwards, she surrendered her weapon and turned herself in when the police showed up.
My general idea is that the psychologist is someone appointed by her attorney in hopes of better creating a defense. Because as you can probably guess, this isn't the kind of case where the defense could argue that someone else went into the classroom and shot the guy: numerous witnesses testify that she did it, she herself said she did it, and they have her journals detailing the plan she and her friend made. So they're trying an insanity defense or something along the lines of "She felt backed into a corner and didn't think she had any other options" kind of defense.
But the thing is, while I was once an angry depressed teenage girl who harbored Columbine fantasies, I lacked ready access to firearms and the nerve needed to act on my desire to hurt everyone. So in other words, I never actually got into trouble with the law, so I don't know what circumstances my teenage girl character would be held under. What level of security? I'm told there's actually a difference between Juvenile Hall and Juvenile Detention Centers despite the terms being used interchangeably. Would she have a roommate? Would she have to wear the classic orange coveralls like adult prisoners or does the Juvenile system use something else? What exactly would they be doing with her as she awaits trial?
Any details that would better help me flesh out my character's physical and psychological landscape, would be nice. Experience has taught me that it's the little details that really make a story work.
My general idea is that the psychologist is someone appointed by her attorney in hopes of better creating a defense. Because as you can probably guess, this isn't the kind of case where the defense could argue that someone else went into the classroom and shot the guy: numerous witnesses testify that she did it, she herself said she did it, and they have her journals detailing the plan she and her friend made. So they're trying an insanity defense or something along the lines of "She felt backed into a corner and didn't think she had any other options" kind of defense.
But the thing is, while I was once an angry depressed teenage girl who harbored Columbine fantasies, I lacked ready access to firearms and the nerve needed to act on my desire to hurt everyone. So in other words, I never actually got into trouble with the law, so I don't know what circumstances my teenage girl character would be held under. What level of security? I'm told there's actually a difference between Juvenile Hall and Juvenile Detention Centers despite the terms being used interchangeably. Would she have a roommate? Would she have to wear the classic orange coveralls like adult prisoners or does the Juvenile system use something else? What exactly would they be doing with her as she awaits trial?
Any details that would better help me flesh out my character's physical and psychological landscape, would be nice. Experience has taught me that it's the little details that really make a story work.
