I had been a prosecutor in the Bronx District Attorney's Office for only two years, in a bureau that specializes in prosecuting crimes on Rikers Island, when once again, I was confronted with a problem I never expected.

A defense attorney was deeply concerned about the safety of her client, a transgender woman who was being held in a male facility. Even after the high-profile, tragic death of Layleen Cubilette-Polanco, a transgender, incarcerated person who died at Rikers, antiquated gender classifications and assumptions were still pervasive in the city jail system.