Amika Moda

If she broke one of the rules, she'd be locked back inside, out of options, and maybe even with more time added to her sentence.

When her family inside found out that she was moving to the firehouse, they threw her a party.

Amika had helped one friend inside through chemo.

She'd helped others write legal briefs to challenge their cases.

The women inside were each other's entire world.

She didn't take kindly to the instruction that she wall them off.

Amika knew she didn't have other choices.

So in Captain Lott's office, wearing a polka dot muumuu, she signed the contract.

She was agreeing to cut all communication with anyone incarcerated in the prison.

And when you agreed to that, were you like, yes, I'm doing this, this is painful, but I'm fully doing it?

Or were you like, yeah, okay, sure.

No.

And pretty soon after arriving at the firehouse, it became clear that it was going to be a problem.

Fire Escape is a production of Snap Studios and Wondery.

This series was created, written, and produced by me, Anna Sussman.

And I want to thank Amika Moda for her help and generosity in sharing her story with us.

For Snap Studios, our senior story editors are Mark Ristich and Nancy Lopez.

Marissa Dodge is our director of production.

Original music by Renzo Gorio and Doug Stewart.

Doug Stewart also created our theme song.