"Gotham's Dirty Little Secret" was the working title of this article from its inception. However when digging deeper and deeper into the underbelly of Gotham's notorious asylum it turns out that the secret is a secret everyone is talking about. From elected officials to public servants, and the upper echelons of Gotham's elite right down to the faculty themselves it seems the outdated and experimental procedures for treating the so-called criminally insane carries an ironic stamp of approval. The irony lies in the fact that the procedures wouldn't be publicly approved by any administration even in the harshest of environments. The Standard Operating Procedures manual of the asylum, available to anyone who requests a copy, are as cut and dry as any you might find across the country. However the operating procedures carried out on a day to day basis are anything but standard.
From procedures banned in the early part of the 20th century (and in some cases procedures banned in the early part of the 15th century), to new experimental procedures that aren't fit to test on fleas, the administrators and medical staff seem to have carte blanche to proceed in whatever manner they see fit. The manner they see fit seems to violate every major New Jersey state law, United States federal law, and even go so far as to violate basic international understandings of what constitute torture under the Geneva Conventions. Granted, the Geneva Conventions protect prisoners of war, but I would argue that the war on crime and "insanity" in Gotham City might fall into that category.
It is no secret that Gotham runs on a system that many in seats of power either fail to understand or are in so deep among the cesspool of corruption that they've lost sight of the real problems plaguing the streets and also the halls of the prison so many call home.
I am no fan of criminal behavior, some might say for a reporter I'm shockingly conservative in my views of crime and punishment. One doesn't become a friend of Superman without holding certain things in high regard. The law being one of them. But I don't drive a hard line with petty crime and mischievous behavior. I believe it ought to be curbed before mischievous behavior becomes something worse, but as a society it's our job to curb it. We have laws in place that protect individuals, and we have laws in place that protect even the people who break those laws.
It is easy for a victim of serious crime to wish bad things on the criminal who harmed them, it is a natural reaction to want justice. However the desire for justice has lines that must never be crossed. The dehumanization of another person makes behavior like what goes on Arkham acceptable. It is what allows public officials to turn a blind eye to the practices. It is what allows a former inmate to be a practicing physician within those walls while no one stands up. Standing up is my job, standing up is what I do, I stand up for injustice whenever I see it. Our Man of Steel does the same. I see injustice at Arkham, I see corruption, and I see it's failures. It is no wonder their inmates are staging escapes at every turn. It's no wonder that their system is so broken internally that they can't keep their city safe. It falls to one man, to stop corruption at all levels. Gotham is sinking, and will continue to sink unless something is done. Why not start from the bottom? Recidivism isn't a statistic in Gotham City, its a way of life. If you treat people like animals, then they will continue to behave as such. I'm not simply talking of murderers and rapists, I'm talking about enemies of the elite who are imprisoned unjustly. I'm talking about minors thrown in with Gotham's worst. I'm talking about the favorite inmates being subjected to a higher level of treatment and secret midnight passes to leave the prison and come and go as they please under cover of darkness. Starvation for some, four course meals for others.
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(Article continues with specifics, instances, she names names, quotes sources and goes into an uncomfortable level of detail...)