There are some things that are designed to fail. Speed traps for people coming down a hill, turning ice cream cups upside-down after letting it melt for a few minutes, and when Bruce is being totally honest with himself... Arkham. The others are obvious, but the large gaudy decorated brick insane asylum is less flashy in its false promises to keep the monsters at bay.
And the monster's know it.
Bruce's thrown an untold amount of money at the place and it still is designed to fail. The building is much too large to be any good at keeping the criminally insane locked up. The floors that remain empty because of lack of staff and inmate is astounding. The building also has many windows and trees so all any of them have to is to break a window and climb. After it happened the second-time bars were installed.
Arkham will always be the grim reminder just outside Gotham city with enough Rogues to set the city on fire when they feel like it. The staff and the building will never change for the better. They don't fear Batman anymore, what's the worst he can do? Throw them back in Arkham.
The staff is... well no one in their right mind would ever want to work there no matter the salary and benefits package. Nurses that have been fired for negligence will be hired simply because Arkham doesn't care, plus it's all they can get. Doctors range from incompetent, to belonging there in an inmate capacity. No matter who has tried, or will try to change it, the cursed place stays ever the same. A revolving door to Batman's rogues.
Dick knows that people change. If they killed everyone that messed up they would be killing some people that wouldn't be forever evil, like Clayface. He was able to change for the better. But Dick couldn't stop himself for regretting that the Joker was still breathing he didn't deserve to live or have the chance for redemption. He would always be evil, but Bruce's rule was law. He ultimately wasn't the judge to say positively who should live or die. As Robin he never questioned the rule, as Nightwing and later Batman his resolve was tested much more. (He felt like he could guess in some cases. Working with Spyral didn't help.)
Jason has been in Arkham. It sucks. The people who work there might have been decent at one time. Not anymore. He doesn't doubt that killing is more efficient. He isn't afraid of breaking the one rule that he was given. He justifies it just like he supposes Diana Prince does, he becomes a necessary evil. He doesn't have much humanity left why can't he make it to others advantage? Bruce works with other heroes that kill, but not him. Jason doesn't mind being the outlaw as long as he sees no evil in his actions.
Tim wouldn't admit it at out loud, but Jason takes a more permanent approach that he can almost appreciate. It makes more sense and at least it works. There is no catch and release program. Drug cartels can't kidnap poor kids for their organs if the Red Hood takes out the cartel. The dead can't escape and kill thirty hostages. They can't surprise you on and off night with a knife wound, or fear gas. Jason may kill, but it's not like he hasn't saved lives in the process. Arkham is barely a holding cell to some and depending on power and money... Blackgate isn't permanent either. Innocent people who didn't deserve the worst Gotham has to offer.
Damian has killed before. He was raised to be an assassin and he constantly sees the criminally insane go to Arkham to be pampered, or experimented on depending on the doctor. It's a broken system. He didn't understand at all. He hoped for nights that the criminals Batman and Robin got could go to Blackgate, it was at least more secure. His father's rule had no exceptions even when he saw people that shouldn't live. They only brought pain and suffering to relatively innocent civilians. Robin's whole purpose was to be the light to Batman's darkness and to protect innocents. Damian didn't understand the flaw in his father's logic.
Bruce grew up with a loving father and mother who didn't even believe in the death penalty. His father had a company but still chose to be a doctor to help people. When he traveled abroad when he was training to be Batman he noticed how people who had killed before were different, they had an edge that was sharp and calculating. They were cold from the normalcy of the actions they took and Bruce knew he could never cross that line. It didn't matter if the men were monsters, he couldn't be the judge, jury, and executioner. He couldn't allow his children to either. He knows how easy it would be to slide down the path of no return. Arkham isn't good, but if it could keep his children from being killers he could accept it. Bruce knows they all question his rule, they probably wouldn't understand if he explained it. Arkham was designed to fail, but maybe one day it would be better.
AN
I felt like writing something and I was thinking about things that are designed to fail. Is there anything more designed to fail than Arkham? I know in comic book land they have to have reoccurring villains, but how do they keep the motivation to keep fighting them?
WoG