Richard Mendel
RICHARD "DICK" MENDEL
Senior Research Fellow, The Sentencing Project
(Presenting Virtually)
Richard “Dick” Mendel is the author of Diversion: A Hidden Key to Combating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile Justice and a Senior Research Fellow for Youth Justice at the Sentencing Project, where he conducts research and writes reports to promote reform of our nation’s youth justice systems.
Prior to joining The Sentencing Project, Mendel spent more than 20 years as an independent writer and researcher on youth justice and other social justice issues. During that time, he authored several highly-cited publications on juvenile justice for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, including The Missouri Model: Reinventing the Practice of Rehabilitating Youthful Offenders (2010); No Place for Kids: The Case for Reducing Juvenile Incarceration (2011); and Transforming Juvenile Probation: A Vision for Getting it Right (2018). Previously, Mendel authored: Prevention or Pork: A Hard-Headed Look at Youth-Oriented Anti-Crime Programs (1995) and Less Hype, More Help: Reducing Juvenile Crime, What Works – and What Doesn’t (2000) for the American Youth Policy Forum. As a journalist, Mendel has published articles in The Atlantic, Washington Monthly, The Marshall Project, Legal Times, Baltimore Sun, [Raleigh, NC] News & Observer, The American Prospect, and other publications. He holds a Bachelors in Public Policy from Duke University and a Masters in Journalism from the University of Maryland.