Justice 101: Freedom Behind Bars: The First Amendment and Incarceration in America
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
12:00 - 1:00pm EST
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This Constitution Day we pause to celebrate the First Amendment and its role in securing freedom and liberty for all Americans. But what does the First Amendment look like for incarcerated people? In this discussion, we’ll examine how freedom of expression is restricted and fought for within the American criminal justice system. We’ll explore how natural rights are upheld, or denied, in prisons across different states; the legal and ethical boundaries of speech, press, and religious expression for incarcerated individuals; and the transformative power of prison journalism and art in preserving human dignity and challenging injustice.
Moderated by Dr. Kerry Sautner, President and CEO of Eastern State, this conversation will feature Moira Marquis (Legislative Director, FIRE), Yukari Iwatani Kane (CEO, Prison Journalism Project), and Alexandra Morgan-Kurtz (Deputy Director, Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project). Together, they’ll challenge us to reconsider the meaning of “freedom of expression” and imagine how it might be fully realized, even in the country’s most restricted spaces.
About the Panelists:
Moira Marquis
Legislative Director, FIRE
Moira Marquis (she/her) has extensive experience working with incarcerated writers and researching censorship inside prisons and jails. In addition to serving as Legislative Director for FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), she is the FreeWrite Project senior manager in the prison and justice writing department at PEN America. She has a Ph.D. in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Yukari Iwatani Kane
CEO, Prison Journalism Project
Yukari Iwatani Kane (she/her) is a founder and CEO of Prison Journalism Project. She is an author, educator and veteran journalist with 20 years of experience and was a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Her book “Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs” was a bestseller, translated into seven languages. She has taught at Northwestern University and University of California, Berkeley, as well as at San Quentin State Prison, where she was an advisor.
Yukari is an alum of the Institute for Nonprofit News Emerging Leaders Council and the Reynolds Journalism Institute fellowship program, and the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership. She is a member of News Literacy Project’s advisory council and an advisor for The Endeavor, at Everglades Correctional Institution in Florida.
Alexandra Morgan-Kurtz
Deputy Director, Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project
Alexandra Morgan-Kurtz (they/them) is the Deputy Director of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project. They have successfully litigated dozens of federal civil rights claims on behalf of individuals incarcerated and detained in Pennsylvania on issues such as sexual abuse, religious freedom, disability rights and inadequate mental health and medical care.
Their victories include a precedential Third Circuit decision expanding the rights of incarcerated individuals to purse class actions for violations of their civil rights, two successful jury trials and settlements eliminating multiple unconstitutional state wide policies. From 2011-2013 they worked as a legal fellow for the ACLU of Pennsylvania. They received their J.D. from the University of Virginia, School of Law in 2011.
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This program is part of Justice 101, a discussion series that dives into some of the most pressing issues in criminal justice today, through a historical lens and with a focus on civic education. Each program includes interactive elements, expert voices, and opportunities for community dialogue.
