Ronnie Waters (1962-2025) 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.