suicide assessments Info
Lyrics
Jeannie leaves the house before breakfast
To make the suicide assessments
Suicide assessments —
Suicide assessments.
She drives downtown just as fast as they let her
Parks in front of the detention center
The detention center —
Juvenile detention center.
She catalogues all their violent wishes
She says it’s the teenage girls who are vicious.
Teenage girls are vicious –
Teenage girls can be so vicious.
And some want special treatment, and others are just angry
So it’s like a slumber party with armed guards and CCTV.
That’s closed circuit TV.
You can’t hide from CCTV.
And none of them have lives that I would ever envy
But now and then one comes along that’s genuinely empty
She seems to speak sincerely
She sees the darkness clearly
She says that life is dreary
The endless fight has lost its meaning.
So Jeannie marks the space for protective observation
The guards will have to watch her for the sake of preservation
They’ll watch her desperation
For some sign of salvation.
Jeannie leaves the house before breakfast
To make the suicide assessments
Suicide assessments —
Suicide assessments.
Story
I started writing this song one Saturday morning in the kitchen as my wife was rushing out the door to her weekend job. It’s a true story, about a real job. She’s a social worker.
“Protective observation” is when they make you sleep on a mat on the floor in the middle of the common room so a guard can sit there on a folding chair and watch you 24/7.
I recorded this with a ukulele. Everything else came from the computer.