Arkham Asylum has been explicitly described by Jeremiah Arkham as a private psychiatric hospital. Batman: Shadow of the Bat 4, September It is unclear whether it is a proprietary institution managed as a business entity with publicly traded stock, or a non-profit facility which does not depend on profit to remain competitive.
The grounds of the original asylum belonged solely to the estate of Amadeus Arkham. Arkham Asylum: Living Hell 5, November Other incarnations of Arkham have been depicted as federal facilities, which received direct funding and support from the U.
Batman Adventures 1, June In the film Suicide Squad , the asylum is a municipal hospital owned and managed by the Gotham public health department. Despite its status as a private hospital in the mainstream DC Universe, Arkham is also granted certain legislative privileges by Gotham City.
For example, Gotham law empowers the asylum to unilaterally detain any person or persons under indefinite psychiatric observation. Said individuals cannot be institutionalized through formal means without the consent of their families or the judicial system, but they can be held for any period at the director's discretion.
Swamp Thing 66, November This loophole has allowed Arkham to incarcerate specific characters, such as Jean Loring, while circumventing the bureaucratic process normally associated with institutionalization.
Identity Crisis 7, February A number of other states and cities have transferred dangerously insane supervillains to Arkham Asylum despite its rather discouraging reputation, either because they lack facilities of their own to hold them, or find it easier to dump their criminal problem on Gotham City. Nearly every member of Batman's Rogues Gallery has been incarcerated at Arkham under various circumstances.
Stockbroker Warren White, better known as the Great White Shark , was initially sent to Arkham after evading a white-collar fraud conviction in the Gotham courts by pleading insanity. His time inside the asylum drives him truly insane, and White comes to manipulate the system from within as a ruthless underworld racketeer.
Arkham Asylum: Living Hell 6, December Arkham in its various incarnations has proved to be extremely porous; escapes, even from maximum security wards, are bizarrely frequent; administrative releases are often handled in a negligent manner on at least one occasion, an obsessive-compulsive multiple murderer was signed out of Arkham into the care of an incontinent, alcoholic vagrant, on the grounds that he "looked like a responsible citizen" , and consequently suffer from high recidivism.
Arkham escapees and legitimate releases alike nearly always go on to commit subsequent crimes that land them back in the asylum to safely plot their next caper rather than the city jails or Blackgate Penitentiary. The administration is usually portrayed as ineffectual and corrupt, with inmates sometimes managing to seize control of the facility and embarking on an orgy of murder, destruction, and mayhem unopposed. A temporarily reformed Joker once claimed that Arkham survived on exorbitant subsidies from Gotham City, and its administration blackmailed the taxpayers by intentionally allowing the most dangerous patients to escape, then using the ensuing publicity of their crime sprees to demand more funds.
Batman: White Knight 2, January With few recurring exceptions, such as Aaron Cash , the security force is troubled by exaggerated levels of apathy and, according to Arkham Asylum: Madness , a crippling turnover rate. At least one guard was hired despite a history of violent felonies, for which he served a sentence at Blackgate.
Arkham Manor: Endgame 1, June Harvey Bullock once described Arkham guards as "rent-a-cops" who were "amateurs and blind to boot". Batman , October The asylum's medical staffing has proved even more questionable, given how unstable several resident psychiatrists have become, including Jeremiah Arkham, Alyce Sinner, Harleen Quinzel , and, in some incarnations, Jonathan Crane and Hugo Strange.
Although the asylum is rebuilt in larger and larger iterations, an inevitable trend towards overcrowding has led to a breakdown in patient segregation—for instance, housing nonviolent and relatively harmless offenders on the same block or even in the same cell with serial killers, as in Arkham Asylum: Living Hell and compels the staff to simply focus on warehousing the inmates rather than rehabilitating them.
The practice of employees trading contraband, and even release forms, to prisoners in exchange for sexual favors is rampant. Patient neglect is pervasive, which undoubtedly plays a major role in the countless number of escape attempts; for instance, in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman , inmates are not even provided with clothing, and Doctor Destiny is left naked in an unheated cell.
Vale noted the prevalence of outdated techniques such as prolonged confinement to straitjackets and confirmed Destiny was not an isolated case; she accused Arkham of intentionally leaving its inmates unclothed, switching off the heating to their wards, and housing them in decrepit, waterlogged cells.
Although the policy has fluctuated, Jeremiah Arkham initially never issued uniforms to supervillains admitted to his care in costume, preferring they remain so clothed so as to better shed light on their various disorders. This minimal supervision has allowed prisoners to smuggle in contraband, such as the Scarecrow did with a vial of fear toxin.
Batman: The Dark Knight 15 , February Arkham seems to favor prolonged solitary confinement as the preferred discipline for problem inmates; in Black Orchid Poison Ivy reports being held in solitary for three weeks on end, while Scarecrow is sentenced to three months in solitary at the conclusion of Arkham Asylum: Living Hell. As Arkham does not seem to effectively treat its charges, a sentiment echoed often by police commissioner James Gordon , and it likewise cannot keep them detained, it remains under constant surveillance by an ever-vigilant Dark Knight and the GCPD.
Arkham Asylum was associated with a rather unique visual motif for nearly a decade after its introduction, usually appearing as a sprawling Victorian campus with old stone walls and a number of dilapidated wings. Like the Arkham Sanitarium of Lovecratian fiction, it was based on Danvers State Hospital and several other nineteenth century lunatic asylums which adopted a similar architectural style.
When Jeremiah Arkham's tenure as director commenced, work crews dismantled the old Victorian-era stonework, replacing it with a series of concentric labyrinthine corridors. The disorienting and mazelike atmosphere to Arkham's interior is intentional, engineered to confuse the inmates so even if they escaped their cells, they would find it difficult maintaining a sense of direction and leaving the building.
CCTV cameras were now installed in every room and at periodic intervals in every corridor. Exterior windows were now fitted with heat and motion detectors, while magnetic foil insulation in the walls helped jam suspicious signal reception in the cell blocks. Arkham Asylum reverted to its roots as an imposing manor when Jeremiah relocated operations to Mercey Island following the asylum's destruction by Bane. The Mercey Mansion was portrayed as possessing a particularly dark and gothic exterior which included pointed arches, octagonal towers, flying buttresses, vaulted ceilings, and decorative spires.
It was an extremely tall, multi-storey structure, sweeping upwards to emphasize its loftiness and grandeur. Arkham Asylum has employed both psychiatrists and clinical psychologists; the latter are responsible for conducting most patient interviews and prescribing medication. As the most immediate concern for Arkham's administration is reducing the aggressiveness of high risk patients, prescriptions are often doled out for dopamine inhibitors such as Thorazine. Other recurrent medications used by Arkham staff include Haloperidol and Fluoxetine.
Robin , Volume Four 23 , December Due to the fact that most incarcerated supervillains such as the Joker rarely display the common side effects of these drugs, it has been theorized unscrupulous orderlies are failing to make certain they are properly administered, or are pilfering the real medication and substituting cheaper, alternative pharmaceuticals which are less sedating, have lower rates of relapse, and result in subtler side effects.
Interviews are held periodically by Arkham's therapists for evaluation purposes; in the event of dealing with high-profile cases, sometimes an entire team of doctors may be present. Detective Comics Volume Two 17 , April Patients are encouraged to discuss their lives, thoughts, and desires.
The psychiatrists do not adhere to any set therapeutic model, so the results of the interviews may vary; for example, in Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth Dr. Ruth Adams favors word association asking the interviewee to respond with the first word that comes to mind when offered an item from a word list. These sessions occur in specialized evaluation rooms overseen by orderlies prepared to physically restrain the patient as needed.
If additional force is called for, each room is also fitted with a "panic button" that summons a crash team of armed security officers held on perpetual standby. A member of the team carries a video camera to document the incident from the guards' perspective and guarantee no excessive force is exerted off the record.
Jeremiah Arkham's regime is a known proponent of electroconvulsive therapy. It is probable that the employment of shock treatment as punishment may be used in an unethical manner to deter antisocial conduct among the inmate population. Jeremiah once forced a "difficult case" to undergo ECT after he was observed smuggling contraband to the Joker, without providing a medical pretext or taking the patient's specific diagnosis into consideration.
According to Vicki Vale, the asylum also practices insulin shock therapy. Despite the prevalence of so many other outdated psychiatric techniques, Arkham neither encourages nor routinely authorizes prefrontal lobotomies. Jeremiah Arkham has stated that he does not consider lobotomy a "progressive" treatment, dismissing it as a poor substitute for medication and therapy.
Batman 67, September The liberal use of lobotomy procedures to control Arkham's most feral inmates is further discouraged by bureaucratic restrictions and opposition from patients' rights groups. Arkham staff must obtain prior approval from the State Board of Medical Examiners before performing a lobotomy. Originally, Arkham Asylum was used only to house genuinely insane characters - the Joker and Two-Face were patients from its very first appearance - but over the course of the s a trend was established of having the majority of Batman's supervillain opponents end up at Arkham, whether or not they were actually insane.
The most striking of these is the main gate that grants access to the property. A famous DC character lived on the property long before the Arkham family. The true owner of the mansion is none other than Jason Blood, a powerful occultist.
Ironically enough, he also treated the mentally ill, although his methods were more religious in nature as he used exorcisms and torture. Blood sealed some of the lost souls in the basement before selling the building to the Arkhams.
Since the Arkhams dealt with their fair share of tragedy after moving onto the property, and the future of Arkham Asylum being nothing but madness and mayhem, can it all be traced back to Blood? Comic fans know he has a rather interesting relationship with Etrigan the Demon , and the things he did within the mansion may still haunt the asylum to this day.
Arkham Asylum didn't appear in the comics until November in Batman issue However, new lore suggests that in-world, the asylum has been around for much longer.
In fact, Amadeus Arkham opened the facility back in November For many decades, it treated the mentally ill with the best practices of the era. However, it wasn't until much later that metahumans became a threat to Gotham, forcing the asylum to switch its focus. In modern iterations, there's even a meta-wing with ultra-high security measures in place for patients like The Joker.
As the villains of Gotham City become more dangerous and more unpredictable , Arkham's need for greater security measures increases. Whenever there is a breakout and there's definitely a lot , all eyes are on Arkham Asylum. Amadeus Arkham, the founder of the facility, killed his own mentally ill mother. He spent years repressing the memory, eventually convincing himself that she had actually committed suicide. As the only remaining heir of the Arkham family, Amadeus determined to transform Arkham manor into a mental hospital to treat others.
When one of his former patients, Martin "Mad Dog" Hawkins, breaks into his home to rape and murder his wife and daughter, Amadeus starts to embrace occult rituals and begins a slow descent into madness, ending with his own incarceration at his own asylum. Jeremiah rebuilds Arkham Asylum from the ground up, retooling it to better house the likes of the kind of supercriminals that would eventually make his facility famous.
Jeremiah would eventually go on to adopt the mantle of the new Black Mask, embodying the same kind of criminal his asylum is supposed to rehabilitate. He believes this bat haunts the Arkham estate, which is a driving force in him turning to the occult as he seeks the means to bind the specter of the bat. The torment of this vision was so strong that he actually designed the floorplan of the asylum to take the shape of various runes in an attempt to keep the bat at bay.
The Caped Crusader has always been known as a hero that plans ahead. This strategic location ensures that Batman will have access to anything he needs should there ever be a riot, a prison break, or if he himself gets locked up in Arkham -- all of which have been known to happen.
The first instance was by Jeremiah Arkham, when he tears down the Arkham family estate to make way for the new and improved Arkham Asylum. It would be destroyed several more times, though. At this point, Arkham Asylum is like a character unto itself, and like any comic book character except Uncle Ben , expect it to be destroyed and remade on a regular basis. After a portal to hell is opened inside Arkham Asylum, the Bat family has its hands full with demons. Joker : So tell me, Bats. What are you scared of?
Failing to save this cesspool of a city? Not finding the commissioner in time? Me , in a thong? Oracle: Let's see, random threats to her family, a couple bad jokes, a picture of a dead baby, and a threat. He says, "I'm coming for you! I want what I paid for! Her skin now a venomous green, the wanton creature no longer looked like a human being, much less a woman.
The Bible says, 'Suffer not a witch to live,' yet he has once again delivered this female atrocity to our care. Once I have dealt with the monster, I think it will be time to see if green wood does, in fact, burn.
I'll just flood the rooms with happy gas and leave ya to die. Hell, I might do that anyway. Sounds fun. I want you to hurt these guys. They mean nothing to me! At Arkham, our patients are protected by one of the most advanced security systems in Gotham.
What's more advanced than having to break out before breaking in? With Selective Re-Education, you can bring home the loved one that you always wanted. Young: How can you joke about something like that?
Riddler: Easily, doctor Scarecrow : You married your wife because you were scared of dying alone. You had children because you're scared you won't leave behind anything important. You go to doctors because you're scared of dying Batman : You failed, Crane. I've been working with Dr. Kellerman, creating an antidote to the toxins in your cologne. He fooled you, Crane. How does that make you feel?
Threatened, humiliated? Oracle : How did you keep this a secret? Batman It's me, remember? Batman : Barbara, listen to me. Joker will not win. I won't let him. Joker : Hellooo? Are you listening to me? I'll teach you to hang up on me, you sniveling little worm! Inmate : Aaaaahhhh! Damn boiler scared the crap outta me! Poison Ivy : Are you ready for me?
Do you think you can handle me? The middle. In plain view. Do you guys need glasses!?! He did so with zero regrets, since he never liked her. Another mook one-ups him, saying that Joker made the same request of him even though he doesn't have a sister, but Joker wouldn't leave him alone.
So what did he do? Get in his car and run over the first woman he saw. He's in a secret lab in the gardens and The Joker : Come on boys! He's just one man! One man dressed like a lunatic and armed to the teeth. Riddler : What? You're nearly done? Are you cheating? Looking them up on the internet?
Tell me!
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