The Black Mirror episode, "White Bear" depicts a very controversial way of punishing criminals for committing heinous crimes (eye for an eye). In the episode, a woman named Victoria and her fiance kidnapped, tortured, and killed a little girl and filmed the act. As a punishment for her crimes, Victoria wakes up in a chair with all of her memories erased, and is forced to go through the day confused and afraid (because she believes people are trying to kill her and she does not know why) while onlookers film her basically being tortured. At the end of each day, she is informed of who she is and of the crimes she committed, and her memory is erased so she can start all over again the next day.
Punishment for crimes should be rehabilitative, and in this case, not only is the punishment punitive, but its also inhumane. They treated Victoria as if she was an animal in a zoo exhibit instead of an actual human being who committed a crime. The punishment would have been much more effective (and humane) if Victoria went through the justice park and went to jail afterwards so she would actually learn her lesson. Because all of the memories that made Victoria who she was were erased, it was as if the justice park conductors (or whatever you want to call them) were punishing an entirely different person who has absolutely no recollection of committing crimes. At the end of the episode, when her identity (and the crimes she committed) was revealed to her, Victoria started to cry. The entire time, Victoria thought she was on a mission to find and save her daughter. She could not believe she had committed such a heinous crime.
The show also made me realize jails and prisons in America are not much different than the White Bear justice park. For one, jails and prisons surely are not rehabilitative, but they should be. Prisoners in America are treated more like scum of the earth. If jail and/or prison was more rehabilitative, there would be far less repeated offenders, and far less people committing crimes. There are hundreds of prison documentaries and television shows that exploit prisoners and poke fun at their horrid living conditions (Orange is the New Black, for example) for our entertainment, making us not much different than the onlookers at the White Bear justice park.
1 comment:
Prisons in America are basically garbage anyway. Their focus isn't to rehabilitate the criminal and have them become a better civilian in society. It's to make some money regardless of what happens to the prisoner. In this case, they only care about what she did in the past, but not how they are affecting her with her punishment. What's the point in punishing a woman if she doesn't even know what she did? She can't even feel remorse at this point, because there is nothing to feel remorse for.
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