The mission of our Department of Justice is "to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law...to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans." Laws are created in order to maintain uniformity in punishment. The case of Victoria Skillane appeared unique, and too costly to perform for all major criminals. This alone was unfair and unjust. While the mission of the Department of Justice does not detail behavioral correction, this was also not a motive of the punishment. It can be argued that our justice system does not succeed in behavioral correction, and in my opinion, that is true.
Our jails are extremely costly for our government. For example, it costs an average of $23,876 per year to house a state prisoner. As a result we pay companies to house our prisoners as they make money by running cheap prisons that require funds from the families of prisoners. This has led to the creation of a seventy billion dollar industry. As a result, behavioral correction has been pushed to the wayside. White Bear may have paralleled this situation by presenting the punishment as a show, that must have been profited from. The punishment could have occurred in a closed environment.
A defendant may plead not guilty by insanity in order to receive a more lenient punishment, and to eliminate the death penalty. The details of Victoria Skillane's trial were not presented in the episode, and it seems that she was not able to properly defend herself in court. If Victoria Skillane had plead insanity, it is evident that her government was not remedying her insanity, but reinforcing it. If she had not, the punishment is still unnecessary as the death penalty would have been more appropriate. Overall, White Bear may be attempting to communicate the injustices of our criminal justice system, or perhaps the flawed idea of justice within the general public. However, while evidently cruel, it contained a few plot holes that makes it difficult to draw conclusions regarding the justification of the punishment based upon certain factors.
1 comment:
I definitely agree with you that our justice system does not correct criminal's behavior. We just punish them really. It seems the only people who get rehabilitated are drug abusers (and they can either choose or reject the government funded programs I think), but I don't hear about habitual carjackers being rehabilitated or anything. They just get caught in the vicious cycle.
Post a Comment