Is this punishment inhumane?

In the episode, "White Bear," the protagonist, Victoria, has amnesia and goes through multiple stressful life or death situations for an entire day. At the end of the day, however, she finds out that the entire day was scripted, and that she was an accomplice in the torture and murder of a young child. After realizing this, she is plagued with guilt while an audience jeers at her. After all of this, a device is planted on her head, and she loses all of her memory, before repeating everything the next day.

Many people in the class, after watching this episode, thought that this was a cruel and inhumane form of punishment. Is this form of punishment inhumane when compared with today's prison system, however? In our prison system, Victoria would have been judged as unable to reform by our justice system, and she would be forced to suffer in prison, plagued by guilt if she truly felt remorse for what she did. In the show, however, although living through the same stressful situation on a daily basis seems like a cruel punishment, her memory is wiped at the end of every day. Rather then feeling as if she's suffering through the same thing every day, she only remembers going through the punishment once at the end of every day. She also only has to suffer through the remorse of her actions at the end of every day, rather than all day, every day like she would if she were in our justice system.

Not only might this form of punishment be healthier for the victim, but it also might be healthier for the justice system. In the episode, this event took place inside a "justice park," where people paid for admission in order to watch her go through this event. While it may be hypocritical, the people inside enjoyed themselves. Through a system like this, the justice system could be funded in part by the patrons of the justice park, rather than being funded in full by taxpayer money, like it is in our world.

Although this form of punishment may seem cruel and unusual, it is not more inhumane than our justice system, where those who commit serious crimes are not given a chance to reform anyway, and are forced to suffer through prison life. This form of punishment would also fund the justice system at least partially, reducing the amount taxpayers must pay.