The White Bear Punishment

The the Episode "White Bear" from the series Black Mirror, the main character of the episode, Victoria Skillane, is trapped in a cycle and must relive a terrifying series of events every day as punishment for assisting in the murder of a six year old girl, Jemima. The most controversial part of the episode occurs at the end of each day, when Victoria's memory is painfully electrocuted, and her memory is wiped clean.

In the show, the public seems to agree as a whole that this punishment is justice.  She sat by and filmed while her fiance torture and murdered a child.  When her fiance committed suicide before his trial, the public was still bloodthirsty and vengeful, leaving Victoria at the mercy of the "justice" system.  The elaborate punishment and demonstration put on by her captors makes sense, as it is basically "an eye for an eye", making Victoria feel the same fear that young Jemima felt.

In real life however, the justice in this punishment is harder to see.  There is no doubt that in real life, a crime as sadistic and cruel as the one portrayed would definitely call for an exceptionally cruel punishment. However, this punishment would never be allowed to happen in real life. First and foremost,  wiping the memory of someone while making them go through excruciating pain is clearly physical and psychological torture, both of which are extreme abuses of a person's human rights. Physical and psychological torture are also illegal by international law.  Also, a punishment as sophisticated and complex as the one in "White Bear" happening every day would consume a substantial amount of taxpayer dollars.  I seriously doubt that any government would be willing to spend large amounts of money every day on an elaborate torture method.

The infamous and controversial"White Bear"