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JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA) mourns the passing of Ronnie Waters (1962-2025), who passed away early Monday morning. He was a member of the organization’s 2023 Leading with Conviction™ cohort and appeared on the JustUs Speaks Podcast in 2024.
His contributions to the progress of ending juvenile life without parole in the state of Michigan cannot be overstated.
Ronnie had been serving as a Community Engagement Specialist with Safe & Just Michigan, as well as CEO and owner of Over 40, LLC. He had decades of organizing experience both inside and outside prison. He was also a former juvenile lifer. He had worked with the Chance for Life, NAACP, and ACLU’s juvenile justice program while incarcerated. After he was released in 2020, he worked with Michigan Liberation and VAAC where he knocked on thousands of doors, registered hundreds of voters, and educated justice-impacted people about their voting rights.
Ronnie was particularly interested in changing public opinion about life and long, indeterminate sentences that are handed out to our Black and Brown friends and family members. While Michigan has not completely abolished juvenile life sentences, the Michigan Supreme Court made significant rulings in 2022 and April 2025 that found mandatory life without parole (LWOP) for those under 21 (including 19 and 20-year-olds) unconstitutional, granting many a chance for resentencing, and bipartisan legislation was introduced to end JLWOP for those under 19 entirely, moving towards abolishment.
From JLUSA’s Executive Vice President for Strategic Partnerships, Ronald Simpson-Bey: “We at JustLeadershipUSA extend our deepest condolences and sincerest sympathies to Ronnie’s wife Felicia—who graduated with him as part of JLUSA’s 2023 Leading with Conviction™ cohort—his family and all who knew and loved him.
“It’s always hard to lose one of our JLUSA family, but for those of us from Michigan, it is especially hard to lose a fellow warrior like Ronnie. His contributions to the progress of ending juvenile life without parole in the state of Michigan cannot be overstated, and his legacy will continue and live on in all the good work he was a part of and contributed so greatly toward. May his memory always be a blessing.”
Thank you so much for supporting our mission here at JLUSA! Your donation helps to support our network of leaders working to dismantle oppressive systems and uplift people and families impacted by mass incarceration across the country.
All charitable donations made to JLUSA are fully tax deductible, as allowable by the IRS.
