Established 2023

Penitence, Power, and Creativity at Eastern State

Monday, November 11, 2024
Naomi Bekuretsion

Eastern State Penitentiary was the world's first penitentiary, and the institution's construction reflected the philosophy of carceral punishment centered on penitence and solitary confinement. This visceral philosophy manifested in the prison's striking design features: cells isolated from the main corridor, small feeding holes for delivering meals to incarcerated individuals, and extensive security measures (as of becoming a maximum security prison in 1940). These architectural elements were intended to create "a building designed to foster penitence and regret." While such extreme carceral conditions fundamentally undermined the humanity of incarcerated people, many inmates nonetheless found ways to create art, forge connections, and build community within these harsh constraints. Lester Smith’s murals that adorned the Chaplains halls represent the fascinating interplay of faith, penitence, and artistic creation despite carcel conditions at Eastern State.

Lester Smith was arrested in the mid 1950s for a string of robberies. He was then imprisoned at Eastern State Penitentiary serving a seven year sentence. While incarcerated, he experienced a spiritual awakening and dedicated his life to God and the practice of Catholicism. In an interview with the Evening Bulletin in 1955 he shared his testimony as a sudden and overwhelming experience: “Something strange was taking place … The walls and the bed in my room were the same … but something was different. First I cried. Then I prayed.” This experience in which he becomes derealized from the surroundings in his cell directly ties his sudden spiritual awakening to the monotony of his familiar cell– which is an artifact of penitence.Screen Shot 2025-01-29 at 12 08 44 AM

His sudden and overcoming commitment to faith also became expressed via artistic creation. A Catholic chaplain at the time by the name of Father Edwin Gallagher found him painting in his cell and invited him to paint murals for the chaplain office. In his time at Eastern State Lester Smith painted 23 murals for the chaplains office, each one featuring religious imagery and themes. “The Blessed Martin de Porres” mural (below, left) depicts a man adorned in religious robe holding a cross and looking above, with penitence.

service-pnp-highsm-56300-56337_150px service-pnp-highsm-56300-56338_150px-2

His mural “The Penitent Prisoner” (above, right) depicts a prisoner kneeling and repenting to a chaplain, with a figure that resembles Jesus above also receiving the kneeling and repenting of another human. It is worth noting that the Jesus-like figure receives the repenting human in his arms, while the chaplain-like figure sits on a throne of sorts that the repenter kneels before.

The alignment of the chaplain - like figure below and parallel to the depiction of the Jesus-like figure creates an analogy, from which we can gather that in Smith’s artistic depiction of a penitent prisoner, the act of repenting to the chaplain can be seen as the intermediary to be received by Jesus. This understanding of penitence and faith through the medium of Smith’s murals forces a reckoning with the interplay of power structures in a carceral prison, and systems of organized religion as they impact incarcerated people.

141051184_9c19f35341_q 141051186_1eda910e2c_q 141051183_4c8c4215ab_w

Smith’s depictions of penitence within the hierarchical structure of a carcel system, and his testimony of spiritual awakening are in direct alignment with the published works of Eastern State chaplains in the Eastern Echo. Mans Capacity for Self Determination authored by Father John J. McHugh writes

“fraternal solicitude for the delinquent should be encouraged but not at the expense of foregoing fundamental and judicial principles”

as a way to rationalize the carceral system of Eastern State as a tool to rehabilitate incarcerated persons for their crimes. McHugh continues in that,

“If criminals are not self-made but created by society, then there would be no justification whatever for penitentiaries. If a man is considered irresponsible for his acts, then he may not be punished. Punishment of persons who are not responsible for their acts would be a gross violation of justice and an unwarranted deprivation of human liberty.”

It is interesting to note that while McHugh worked on this article in the chaplains office, Lester Smith’s paintings adorned the walls. With the literal and figurative backdrop of “The Penitent Prisoner,” we can understand from the Eastern Echo how the disciplinary positioning of chaplains as interceded their calling for spiritual work at the prison and compounded the existing carceral power system at play.

This power play is further depicted in the Eastern Echo through Rev. Edwin L. Gallagher’s Faith is Not an Escape in which he writes

“the Catholic man does not departmentalize this supernatural religion and his natural vocation. The work by which he wins his bread is also the work by which he wins eternal life. The most simple service he does his fellow man acquires from its religious overtones a dignity which makes it acceptable to God.”

Just as Lester Smith dedicated himself to working on twenty three religious murals upon connecting with God, Gallagher compares the process of gaining religious favor and good standing with God as a form of work. The title of this article being that Faith is Not an Escape, leaves me with a new understanding of Lester’s artistic expression– being that he was discipled under the spiritual leadership of Father Gallagher and called by him to paint all 23 murals in the chaplains office, it may be likely that Lester created his beautiful murals as an attempt to do the “work” to rehabilitate his spiritual standing with God while his penitence at Eastern State rehabilitated his standing with the law. These narratives in the Eastern Echo and from Lester Smith’s creations reveal a powerful interplay of faith, penitence, and art from which we can understand a facet of the human experience at Eastern State. It is important to understand that this interplay is contextualized through the structures of carceral power– both in the architectural design of the institution to foster penitence, and the organized power structure that chaplains played a role in.

Sources: