Hell on Earth

          This week in Theories of Human Nature, the topic of discussion was, in my own words, the idea of justice and "cruel and unusual" punishment. In class, we watched an episode of the series "Black Mirror" titled "White Bear." In the episode, a woman who played a role in the kidnap and murder of a little girl is forced to re-live the same day over and over. Throughout the day, she is hunted and recorded by strangers and not once is she offered any help. Every day that she wakes up, she has no recollection of who she is or the crime she has committed. The facility in which she is forced to re-live the awful nightmare is considered a "Justice" Park.

         In my opinion, this act of justice is wrong and unconstitutional on many levels. It is morally wrong. For starters, the woman has no recollection of the crime she has committed or who she is; therefore, she has been stripped of her responsibility for the crime because she is no longer the same individual. By taking matters into their own hands, the creators of the park have destroyed the job of justice. The woman has now become innocent and her responsibility, in my opinion, is transferred to those who have stripped her of it. Forcing her to re-live the same day over and over and feel the same humility and guilt is, basically, creating an individualized version of Hell on earth. 

          I believe that the Justice Park is an extreme act of cruel and unusual punishment and is a very inhumane form of imprisonment. True justice should be exercised in the courts and uniformed between like crimes, not turned into a theme park and used as a form of amusement for spectators. In the Justice Park, justice was turned into a source of profit. The actors as well as the on-lookers that encouraged and participated in the facade are no better that the woman they initially intended to punish.