It’s day one of a new storytelling project in the Darwin prison and the woman in front of me is gesturing at the thin shelf of books in front of us. Why do the men get to read true crime and all we get is this romantic shit? I look at the shelf. The tatty novel closest to us has a Mills and Boon style cover with a man and a woman embracing. We know this story. It’s a narrative we’ve all read. I’m relieved when another woman speaks up. What we need round here is some real stories she says.

On an average week, the Darwin Correctional Centre holds around 1100 prisoners; 80 are women. It’s one of the only facilities in Australia where men and women are imprisoned on the same premises. The women have their own area, Sector Four. It contains a yard, several blocks of dorms and a collection of training rooms including the library where we’ve gathered for our storytelling workshop.