Maya Ragsdale

Maya Ragsdale is a movement lawyer in Miami who is fighting for a world in which jails and prisons are obsolete.As a Justice Catalyst Fellow, she will work as Dream Defenders’ first staff attorney, providing legal, policy, and strategic support to abolitionist organizers who are fighting to end pretrial detention and close jails in Miami-Dade County. Maya believes in using her legal skills to build the power and visibility of people impacted by the carceral system. She became an Invest/Divest fellow with Law for Black Lives in 2019, hosted by Dream Defenders. In addition to her work with Dream Defenders, she supports organizers who are building Miami’s first community bail fund and South Florida’s first participatory defense hub. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 2018, she was a public defender and a legal aid attorney in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley and in Miami, Florida.

Fellowship type: Justice Catalyst

Organization: Dream Defenders

Project name: Free the Block