People
Small by design.
Senior-led on every project.
Matthew DeMichele leads every engagement directly. Associates and specialist partners join as the work requires, which keeps overhead low and senior judgment close to the work.
Matthew DeMichele
Founder & Principal
Matthew DeMichele
Matthew DeMichele is a sociologist whose work turns criminal-justice research into decisions agencies can act on. Before founding Ponte, he led the Center for Criminal Legal Systems Research at RTI International and has served as principal investigator on studies funded by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Homeland Security, Arnold Ventures, and the MacArthur Foundation.
His research spans pretrial release and risk assessment, probation and parole, officer workload, and the pathways into and out of violent extremism. He directs the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ Annual Surveys of Probation and Parole and its National Pretrial Reporting Program, and has evaluated pretrial reform efforts in dozens of jurisdictions. Earlier in his career, at the American Probation and Parole Association, he worked directly with supervision agencies on workload, training, and practice.
He has published in journals including the American Sociological Review, Criminology & Public Policy, Justice Quarterly, British Journal of Criminology, and Criminal Justice and Behavior, and his work has been covered by The New York Times, NPR, CNN, The Guardian, and USA Today.
How Ponte staffs work
The right people,
assembled around the problem.
Ponte does not keep a bench. For each engagement, Matthew assembles the methodologists, practitioners, and subject-matter specialists the question calls for—drawn from a national network built over two decades of collaborative research—and serves as the single accountable lead.