White Bear and The Justice System

Recently, our class watched an episode of black mirror called "White Bear'. Basically, it was about the punishment of a woman that helped her fiancé abduct, rape, torture, and kill a young girl. However, the punishment was to torture her everyday and wipe her memory of the torture. She is never actually hurt but the fear she feels is real. I could not help but feel that this punishment was not effective in her rehabilitation or even to help her learn that what she did was wrong. In my opinion, punishment for the sole purpose of hurting someone is just as bad as committing a crime. There is a line that you cross where punishment turns into torture. Then this had me think of our criminal justice system. I mean, I have never personally experienced it but I have seen shows that are "Real crime". Whether or not they actually are accurately depicting life in jail is beyond me, but if they are, I do not believe that the jailing system in america is doing the right thing. First of all, there is no real rehabilitation in this system of punishment. People are sent to jail for committing a crime, and it is basically an adult time out - sparing some probably violent details. So why is the justice system not treating jail more like a rehabilitation center to better the people who go in so they can be released to the world? I, personally, do not know this answer but I can tell you it would probably save the country plenty of dollars to rehabilitate and release convicted criminals instead of jailing them for years and years, sometimes a lifetime. I do know that some people cannot be rehabilitated, however the majority of people probably can. Some of the people in jail probably desperately need to receive psychiatric treatment instead of jail time. Also, as of now, jail is a brutal place where it seems like you have to protect yourself and your things - basically fight for your life - so why are we not sending people who are released from jail to emotional therapy. Maybe if we did more psychiatric help for these criminals, rehabilitation would be possible and repeat offenses would happen less. I think that we forget that people are still people, regardless of a crime that they have committed. Yes, some people are sick and twisted, but the more research that is being presented, the more we know about mental illness and people who murder just to murder usually have some mental illness. Also, that should not be construed to mean that people with mental illness are more likely to murder. The mental illness spectrum is hugely broad and should be treated as any other illness - individual and unique. So, sorry for going a little off topic there. However, The episode "black bear" just made me realize we need to help people - not hurt or hinder their healing process.