Ronnie Waters

Ronnie Waters, Community Engagement Specialist

Waters  joined Safe & Just Michigan in 2021 as a community engagement specialist, bringing with him decades of organizing experience both inside and outside prison. A former juvenile lifer, Ronnie worked with the ACLU’s juvenile justice program while incarcerated. After he was released in 2020, he registered voters and educated justice-impacted people about their voting rights.

“After many decades, I’m finally getting my second chance at life.  However, I left a lot of good people behind, men and women who have paid their debt to society and are totally transformed human beings. We have to bring them home too.”

He is particularly interested in changing public opinion about life and long sentences, and being more open to granting second chances to people who have demonstrated they have earned them.

Waters holds an associate degree in arts and sciences and has done coursework towards a bachelor’s degree at Central Michigan University.

He lives in the Detroit area.