As LCCR’s policy director, Rachel advocates for policy change at the state and local level to reduce the incarceration of youth in Louisiana. In 2016, she led a successful campaign to pass Raise the Age legislation, which brings 17-year-olds into Louisiana’s juvenile justice system as the vast majority of states already do. In New Orleans, she was the driving force behind a city ordinance allowing police officers to issue juvenile warning notices and summonses, which has the potential to reduce juvenile arrests by up to one-third. She has also led ongoing efforts to eliminate the pre-trial detention of adolescents in the city’s adult jail.
Previously, Rachel spent nearly nine years as a program associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. At Casey, Rachel worked with jurisdictions around the country to reduce their reliance on incarceration in the juvenile justice system.
Rachel received a Master of Arts in Developmental Psychology from Teachers College at Columbia University and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Email: rgassert@lakidsrights.org
