Born and raised in the Richmond Hill neighborhood of Queens, Cabán tells Teen Vogue that a critical factor for getting into law was seeing the struggles endured by her grandfather, a Korean War combat veteran who struggled with alcoholism.

"He was an abusive man," Cabán shares. "My grandmother left him, but ended up taking him back because of his failing health."

Cabán adds that she adored her grandfather, and although he was loving and patient toward her, she saw what it looks like to be forgotten by a government that he fought to protect. As she got older, she realized that he had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and she believes he never got the help he needed and deserved because of an unjust system.

"Growing up, I saw the overcriminalization of families [and] of communities that needed help," she tells Teen Vogue about her decision to become a public defender. "I saw the difference between me and my clients, and it was only because of my father's union job that I was able to have better resources. Recognizing that system, that's the biggest thing that drove me."

It was because of the financial security of her father's union job that Cabán was able to excel in her studies. She went to a public elementary school and a Catholic high school that she had to take a long bus ride to attend. It was there, she says, that she "felt drawn to social justice issues, housing justice, and government benefits."

Cabán is the first person in her family to graduate from college with a bachelor's degree in crime, law, and justice from Penn State and a law degree from New York Law School. She and her family navigated the higher education system for the first time as she was making her way through school. Then, she started practicing law and hit her stride.

"I thrived here," Cabán says of her work as a public defender. She says she thought, I worked really hard to get here. This is where I should be.

In her years as a public defender, which include representing more than 1,000 indigent clients in cases ranging from turnstile jumping to homicide, she came to understand the impact a prison sentence can have on a person and their family.

If she’s elected Queens DA, Cabán says her first order of business is "changing those metrics of success," which means not judging the success rate of a DA's office by using incarceration as a goal. Cabán wants to adhere to a public defender's metrics of success: reducing recidivism, keeping people rooted in their communities, and applying the law fairly, regardless of race and class. She’s also a strong proponent of ending cash bail as it is one of the main reasons people remain incarcerated. With Cabán as DA, she wants to work at understanding what drives decision-making and wants "to work at ensuring we keep our community safe” in order to apply the law fairly across racial and class lines.

Cabán's progressive ideas as a self-described "decarceral prosecutor" is to change the system from within, "Not to punish people for the sake of punishment," she says, "but to give people the help they need."

"We have to treat children like children, keep them away from the justice system," she says of the school-to-prison pipeline and youth criminalization. "What we should do is invest in guidance counselors and in safe places that have mediating settings. Invest in schools, art programs, extracurriculars. These are all proven to reduce antisocial behaviors."

If Cabán wins, she's also going to fight for the decarceration of transgender people and, in particular, trans sex workers.