Research Team

Second Chances, Lifelong Consequences: A Conversation on Extreme Sentencing and the People It Leaves Behind What does it mean to sentence someone to life without the possibility of parole? And what happens to everyone left in the wake of that decision, the person incarcerated, their children, their families, and their communities? These were the questions at the heart of UnLocked’s guest event featuring the Maryland Second Look Coalition, bringing together three voices with deeply personal […]

ICE’s New Policies and What They Mean for Children Author: Hannah February 25, 2026 Introduction Violent arrests and raids conducted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency have been growing for months now. In 2025, thirty-two people died in ICE custody, making it the deadliest year recorded since the early 2000s (Bustillo & Mukherjee 2025). Reviewed figures by The Guardian also show that there have been about 73,000 people currently in detention, similarly making

Breaking Barriers: Join the Policy & Familial Incarceration Panel at UMD On April 16th, 2026, students, advocates, and community members will gather at the University of Maryland for a powerful and timely conversation on one of the most pressing issues in our society: the intersection of policy, incarceration, and its impact on families. Hosted by The UnLocked Project, the Policy & Familial Incarceration Panel brings together a dynamic group of leaders, scholars, and lived experience

U.S. & Immigration: Definitions, Current Events, and Importance Author: Maria November 22, 2025 Over the past few months, there has been a lot of political and social turmoil as the new administration has been targeting different domains in the U.S. The topic of immigration, in particular, has been receiving a lot of attention due to all the new policies targeting and attacking it. This paper will explore some of the important definitions regarding immigration, current

When Hunger Meets Incarceration: How Parental Incarceration Fuels Food Insecurity Author: Ava Meisner October 2, 2025 Lorem ip Children, Incarceration, and Food Insecurity Research has indicated that children with incarcerated parents can be 7.5 times more likely to experience food insecurity than their peers due to these intersecting stressors (Muentner, 2024). In 2013, a study showed that formerly incarcerated people are twice as likely to face food insecurity (Lombe and Nebbitt, 2021). A main contributing