LOS ANGELES - Former Federal Public Defender Rachel Rossi announced her entrance into the 2020 Los Angeles County District Attorney’s race Tue., Nov. 12 in front of the Century Regional Detention Center in Los Angeles.
Rossi, worked on criminal justice policy in Washington, D.C. on the House and Senate sides. As Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives, Judiciary Committee, she led the Democratic Majority’s efforts to develop the next steps in criminal justice reform nationally. She worked with Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler and Judiciary Crime Sub-Committee Chair Rep. Karen Bass on drafting criminal justice reform legislation and holding Congressional hearings on the need for criminal justice reform. This included a hearing on California’s criminal justice reforms and a hearing on women and girls in the criminal justice system where Piper Kerman of “Orange Is the New Black” testified.
Prior to the House Judiciary Committee, Rachel was Counsel to Senator Richard J. Durbin, the Democratic Whip, on criminal justice. Rachel worked on multiple nomination hearings, including those for Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, and was the lead staffer on the First Step Act, the major federal criminal justice reform bill signed into law in December 2018. The First Step Act enacted comprehensive sentencing and prison reforms and has resulted in thousands of people being released from federal prison to date.
From 2014 to 2017, Rachel was an attorney with the Federal Public Defender’s office in Los Angeles where she defended clients in the Central District of California and the Ninth Circuit. Prior to that, Rachel represented thousands of clients as an attorney with the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office and Alternate Public Defender’s Office. In those roles, Rachel represented a wide range of clients, including persons experiencing homelessness, mental distress or illness, and substance use disorders.
Rachel will was joined in her announcement by Hilary Lee Potashner, former Federal Public Defender of Central California, public defenders, prosecutors, professors, faith leaders, attorneys, community members, justice system impacted people, reform advocates, and her friends and family.
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office is the nation’s largest local prosecutorial agency. There are 2,850 jail jurisdictions in the United States and the Los Angeles County jail system is the largest of them all.
