DEBBIE KILROY WAS sitting quietly at home in Brisbane on the afternoon of 6 January 2019, scrolling through social media posts on her phone. That was unusual enough: the criminal lawyer and fierce advocate for women rarely sits, unless it’s in a courtroom. And few people would accuse her of being quiet. Ever.

But this is what relaxing means in the life of a woman who has barely paused on her path from wild youth to imprisonment and then to lawyer, high-profile advocate for women in the criminal justice system, and prison abolitionist who counts the iconic American activist, writer and academic Angela Davis as a friend. For Kilroy, even Sundays mean constant vigilance. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram: it’s often where things turn up first. Anything to do with imprisonment that might concern Sisters Inside, the advocacy, support and abolitionist group she founded nearly thirty years ago.