In celebration of National Public Defense Day and Women’s History Month, we sat down for a special Q&A with the two-person strong team heading up Legal Aid’s Women’s Pretrial Release Initiative, a specialty unit within our Decarceration Project.

Together, LAS Staff Attorney Sasha Fisher and LAS Social Worker and Mitigation Specialist Sarah Zarba, work around the clock to liberate and empower women who are locked up:

What does a typical day on this team look like?

Sasha: To be honest, every day can be different. One day, we could be at Rikers meeting with clients, the next at a courthouse making a bail application, and the following day at a different courthouse helping a separate client prepare for their next court date. We also visit alternative-to-detention programs to make better-informed recommendations to clients and judges.

Sarah: I’ll make calls to ensure our clients can keep housing and employment once they’re out. I’ll escort clients to collect vital documents or belongings from a police precinct. That experience can be re-traumatizing. I’ll also make time to take their phone calls after hours just to hold space for them to process trauma and have someone willing to listen to what they want to share. There’s nothing we wouldn’t do for our clients.

Why is it essential to find gender-responsive alternatives to incarceration?

Sasha: Research shows women experience more positive outcomes when they get out of jail and into programs that understand and cater to their unique challenges and realities. A lot of our clients are primary caregivers of young children. We see a lot of women who are criminalized survivors of intimate partner violence and trafficking. Also, women generally earn less money than men and have less access to capital that could allow them to pay bail. We must listen to and address each client’s specific needs.

Sarah: While fewer women are incarcerated than men, focusing solely on the decarceration of women offers a unique opportunity to prove the closure of jails will benefit everyone.

What is your favorite thing about your work at Legal Aid?

Sasha: I just love seeing my clients walk out with smiles on their faces. I love fighting injustice. This is where my heart is. This is where I want to spend my time and energy.

Sarah: This is the best job I’ve ever had because I connect with people and help them overcome their challenges. When someone is incarcerated, their humanity is ignored at every step of the process—from arrest to arraignment to being on the bus to Rikers, and then finally, in a jail cell with the most inhumane living conditions. I’m here to help restore their humanity and dignity, ensuring they achieve positive outcomes, including helping preserve their connections with loved ones.

Speaking of reminding people about our clients’ humanity, what do you wish more people knew about the women you serve?

Sarah: Many are just in the criminal legal system due to trauma responses that I’ve been unaddressed their entire lives. When we connect clients to services that help them heal, it can help them pursue their hopes and dreams, just like everyone else.

Sasha: Exactly. Our clients are brilliant! Sarah has been able to help connect women to pursuing GEDs or taking college classes. One of our clients shared with us how she wanted to start a hair braiding business, and we’re here to clear the road for them to make their hopes of leading dignified lives come true.

There’s this idea that we’re all public defenders, no matter your role at Legal Aid. Does this resonate with you as a team that doesn’t do public defense work in a direct and literal sense?

Sasha: Yes, I genuinely believe we are a large team that moves together, and that’s how we defend our clients’ freedom, humanity, and dignity. None of us can serve our clients fully without the involvement of everyone here at Legal Aid. I can’t do my small part of trying to get women out of pretrial without the support of our Incarcerated Client Services Unit paralegals at Rikers, without Sarah’s mitigation expertise, without our language services unit, without bouncing off ideas off other attorneys across different disciplines in our practice, and so many other people.

Sarah: We need all these things together to effectively and holistically work on a case. Traumas like housing insecurity, neglect in the foster care system, and immigration challenges all feed into why people end up incarcerated. Everything is connected. We don’t stop once we’ve prevented someone from being detained. We find ways for them to sustain and thrive in their lives outside and back in the community with their families.

Why should those reading this support the work you do at Legal Aid—or even why should they consider joining us?

Sasha: You could change a person’s life.

Sarah: What could be more important than getting people out of jail? What’s more important than freedom?

Sasha: Exactly. Let’s get everyone out of Rikers.