In this article, the author analyses scripts written by incarcerated girls in playwriting and performance workshops conducted in regional youth detention centres and performed by formerly incarcerated girls in a programme called "Girl Time" in an urban American southeastern city. Through a close reading and analysis of characters, plots and settings, the author argues that this catalogue of plays collected over a 5-year period (2006-2011) embodies the ways in which incarcerated girls--primarily African American and ages 14-17--used playwriting as a tool to navigate "betwixt and between" lives that are a result of being entangled in the juvenile justice system. The author ultimately argues that these "urban playwrights" articulate a desire that focuses on possible lives beyond detainment and incarceration.