
Presita May
Host: First Defense Legal Aid
Harjeen empowers, educates, and advocates for Texans impacted by a broken probation system through direct representation, all to end the poverty to mass incarceration pipeline.
Around 388,000 people are on probation in Texas, accounting for half of the state’s criminal legal system. There is no right to counsel during this probation stage, despite how much is at risk. If a person is too poor to pay their probation costs, which can easily run in the thousands of dollars, they will remain on probation for an extended period of time. This furthers the cycle of poverty through lingering payments, difficulty obtaining employment, limitations on relocation, and barriers to enrolling in higher education programs. A probation system that keeps a person entangled in the criminal legal system because they cannot pay a sum of money effectively criminalizes poverty by punishing people further for no reason other than their lack of resources.
Harjeen’s Kurdish heritage instilled in her a passion to work with and empower underserved populations. This project will provide her an opportunity to do just that, while effecting lasting change in Texas’s criminal legal system.
During the first year of the Fellowship, Harjeen has:
In the next six months, Harjeen plans to:
Growing up in a Kurdish immigrant community, I witnessed firsthand how devastating grappling with the legal system can be, especially when someone does not have the finances or generational knowledge to succeed.
Harjeen Zibari /
2020 Equal Justice Works Fellow
Host: First Defense Legal Aid
Host: Central Minnesota Legal Services
Sponsor: Anonymous, Faegre Drinker, Target Corporation
Current Fellow
Host: Georgia Justice Project
Sponsor: Greenberg Traurig Fellowship Foundation
Host: The Legal Aid Society
Sponsor: Venture Justice Fund