How punishment reflects on a society

In the fictional society proposed in the White Bear episode of Black Mirror, a criminal is confined to a “Justice Park”. She is forced to relive a traumatic experience every day while visitors watch. The episode does not state whether this is a single event or if many criminals are treated in the same way. The societal acceptance of this form of imprisonment leads me to believe that this is not the first instance of a “Justice Park”. A form of incarceration purely based on punishment would not convert incarceration into a tourist attraction. Merely knowing that the guilty are punished would be enough for society. This form of incarceration is obviously not meant to rehabilitate prisoners for many reasons. For instance, she does not remember anything from previous experiences so how could it help her change her behavior. Thus I believe that this society intends to provide a deterrent to committing crimes. This however has some flaws, in that smaller crimes cannot be punished in this extravagant way. In addition financial crimes, such as embezzlement, similarly cannot be shown in this way. This form of reciprocating justice punishes society as a whole more than individuals. As Mahatma Gandhi once said “an eye for an eye makes the world go blind.”

Our society now focuses more on deterrence rather than rehabilitation. While not to the extreme shown in this episode, major steps still need to be taken. There is, of course, debate over what changes need to be made in order to benefit society the most. Different countries approach this problem differently; hopefully with statistics provided from these different experiments in justice, we can become closer to the ideal of justice. Reintroducing prisoners into the general population after a basic education may benefit everyone overall. Most criminals have a financial reason for their criminal actions. Unemployment can lead to robbery; social development can lead to drug abuse. Of course I don’t know all the answers. Many smarter people have worked their entire lives to solve this issue.

As for the discussion in class and other forum posts, over whether Victoria is the same person, I would say that she is not the same person that was found guilty at trial. The Justice Park system has taken away her ability to develop and change as a person. This is one of the defining points of what it means to be human; taking this away reduces her to less than a slave.