Justice in "White Bear"

"White Bear" had me feeling extremely uncomfortable throughout the entire film. I felt like everyone that the main character Victoria came into contact with was hiding something from her, but I had no idea what until the end. I sympathized majorly with the Victoria throughout the whole film, and at the end when it's revealed that she had a hand in torturing and murdering a child, I still felt like what was happening to her was not justice.

At one point in the film, Victoria and Jem (the girl who Victoria thinks is trying to help her) get "rescued" by a guy named Baxter. They climb in his van, and Victoria thinks she recognizes him and asks who he is. Baxter responds with a question of his own: "Who are you? It's not a hard question, is it?" But I think, especially in this case, it is a hard question. Although her body is the same, I don't think you could say Victoria is the same woman who was convicted; she can't remember committing the crime or even her name. She has no memory of her life or who she was before she wakes up strapped to a chair in a house she doesn't recognize, yet the people at White Bear Justice Park continue to dish out "justice."

What is the point of justice and punishment if it is not rehabilitative? Victoria has no chance of reflecting on her actions and changing her ways. What happens to her is eye-for-an-eye justice–just like the child that died, Victoria is terrified, confused, and helpless. However, the slate of Victoria's mind is (painfully) wiped clean every night, and she wakes up a completely different woman than the one who murdered a child. What's happening at White Bear Justice Park isn't justice. Victoria is tortured to make everyone else feel satisfied that "justice" is being served and that she is being punished for her crime, but she is not being rehabilitated. How can you rehabilitate someone who isn't even aware of what they did wrong? What is the point of a non-rehabilitative justice system if not just to submit people to an endless cycle of incarceration?

I think "White Bear" was so disturbing to me because I can see our own justice system in the film. Our justice system focuses on punishment for the sake of punishment rather than rehabilitation, and it doesn't recognize that people can change. Although Victoria is different from who she was when she helped her fiancé murder a little girl, she is still viewed and punished as if she were the same. People who go to prison are forever seen as convicts or felons once they are let back into society even if they are completely changed people. That's an injustice to those who do turn their lives around. I'm not sure how to fix our justice system, but "White Bear" points out the fact that's it's broken.