Who is arkham asylum named after

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Vale noted the prevalence of outdated techniques such as prolonged confinement to straitjackets and confirmed Destiny was not an isolated case; she accused Arkham of intentionally leaving its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.

This is likely because of some of the facility's high-tech features that make it more efficient to hold a villain such as Clayface there than in a prison.

Nearly all of Batman's enemies have spent some time in Arkham. Arkham has also been featured in varying capacities in a number of high profile DC miniseries events, such as Identity Crisis , Day of Vengeance , Countdown , and Crisis on Infinite Earths among others.

Arkham has appeared beyond the pages of the comics in numerous guises and designs. Its appearances include:. In the films, it is depicted as a tall, spiraling castle-like structure, with narrow hallways lined with brightly-lit glass bricks.

Batman 's enemies are often held in the Asylum after their capture, often immediately afterwards. In Batman Forever , Edward Nygma was incarcerated in a large padded cell after his brain is scrambled by the destruction of his Box devices. There was an alternate opening sequence involving Two-Face escaping from Arkham at the beginning of the film, but it was cut due to its ominous implication of violence. Freeze is imprisoned at the asylum after his capture by Batman, though he escapes with help from Poison Ivy and Bane.

After their scheme to freeze Gotham is foiled by the Batman Family, both Ivy and Freeze are imprisoned as cellmates, despite both being different genders. Batman Forever video game : The video game adaptation of the film features Arkham as its first stage. While the film shows Arkham as being in a remote forested area, the backgrounds in the game seem to place it on the waterfront, directly across the bay from Gotham.

In Batman Begins , Arkham played a much larger role than a simple jail in this film, with Jonathan Crane also known as the Scarecrow being either the administrator or at least a high ranking doctor at the Asylum, and using it to conduct cruel experiments with his fear gas, using his own patients as guinea pigs.

He also used the pipes under the Asylum to empty his toxin into the Gotham water supply. One notable change in this version of Arkham from the comics was the location; while still on an island separate from the rest of the city by 9 large drawbridges , in Batman Begins , it is located in the slum region known as The Narrows , as opposed to the remote forests that surround it in the comics.

By the end of the film, it is implied that the Narrows has been rendered uninhabitable. In the aftermath of the film, Arkham Asylum is closed with many of its inmates moved to Blackgate Prison. Batman also mentions it briefly in the extended edition of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice , revealing to have arranged for Lex Luthor to be imprisoned there. Arkham has appeared frequently in the series. It is depicted as generally dark and gloomy, and the cells are similar to those in the comics, being primarily closed via glass doors.

Much of the rest of the asylum resembles a prison more than a mental hospital, however; in one episode, it is explained that all criminals apprehended by the Batman are sent to Arkham rather than jail although it is shown that Harley Quinn goes to Stonegate , a regular jail.

Parson's State Insane Asylum — Snoop. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Yes, it was. Improve this answer. Rogue Jedi Rogue Jedi Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook.

Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. This pressure forces the facility to pump more funding toward security than treatment. Such a dissonance appears in the Arkham game series in which the asylum has armed security guards and whole rooms made of impenetrable steel. The true patients of Arkham that really need help end up suffering because of the many high profile villains the facility must contain. Between Asylum Directors being killed for their job and security measures going awry, Arkham has had a rough time with scandals over the decades.

It would make sense for the land to be cursed since murders were committed long before the era of The Joker and similar foes. One of the first scandals occurred before construction even completed as the mansion expanded into a full-sized facility.

In the early 20s, one of Amadeus Arkham's patients escaped the temporary holding facility containing him and murdered his wife and daughter. Amadeus became rather unhinged after the incident and fell hard into a deep madness.

The murderer would become Arkham's first patient. Amadeus treated him personally for a year until the anniversary of his family's deaths in which he violently executed him. What even some of the greatest Batman fans may not know is that there was actually a second location for Arkham Asylum. Although long abandoned, the towering complex was once owned by a wealthy Gotham socialite.

The Joker discovered the mansion in Shadow of the Bat He knew its secluded location would make it much easier to house and contain patients so that breakouts like this one would never happen again. If countless breakouts weren't bad enough, at one point, the asylum was forced to let all of its patients loose. This sparked controversy. In the s, as a result of increased emphasis on alternative methods of treatment and community-based mental health care, the inpatient population started to decrease.

The hospital began closing wards and facilities as early as By , the majority of the original hospital wards were closed or abandoned.