Indeed, she says as much to Dick: "People don't get well in Arkham. It ain't a hospital, it's college for crazies." Having been in and out of Arkham a dozen times (not counting the time when she worked there, she'd seen first-hand on many occasions how the old heap of bricks didn't work. Time after time, with the Joker, with her, with Jon Crane, with Jervis Tetch, with poor old Arnie Wesker, the list goes on and on, Arkham Asylum failed as a hospital and as a prison - so what's the point of the place? Dumping ground for supercriminals (crazy or not), pretty much, until the meta wing at Blackgate (instantly nicknamed "superdupermax") was finished.

>Is Arkham still in use in 2412?

Officially, no. The old Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane burned down in 2386 and wasn't rebuilt. (The site is now a Home Depot, which amuses Harley inordinately.) A shiny new psychiatric hospital founded on Modern Methods was built on what was deemed a more secure site, and has some long and boring jargony name that somehow contrives not to have "asylum", "criminal", "insane" or even "psychiatric" in its name. Most people still call it "Arkham" anyway, though there's a whole generation of kids in town now who think first of an all-girl punk band that plays clubs in the East End when they hear the name "Arkham Asylum".

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
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