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Post by Avalikia on Oct 8, 2016 12:09:32 GMT -5
Warning: This Guide is Too Long
If you're just wanting basic information about Arkham City, the TLDR version is 'it's like the video game'. If you've not played the video game, watch about 15 minutes of a Let's Play on YouTube and you'll have the jist. This guide gets more into the nitty gritty details for those who want to know more nitty gritty details, especially about some of the day to day aspects of how the prison works that weren't covered by the video game. Note: some of these details are different than what is indicated by the video game because I tweaked it - the most obvious being that there's clearly some electricity flowing all over the place in the video game. More picturesque, yes, but why would they let them have electricity when it's easy to take that away from them, especially given what that would help you make?
Anyway. I recommend finding the titles to the major sections of this guide and reading the parts that you care about for whatever your purposes are. Or read the whole thing - up to you.
The Ins and Outs of Arkham City
Types of people in Arkham City
The people who are in Arkham City fall into roughly four categories, roughly in order from the most to least common:
Criminals - Those who have been found guilty of any crime severe enough to merit a prison sentence may find themselves in Arkham City. Those who are found guilty of crimes that would only merit a shorter stay in jail do not end up in Arkham City, but there are certain crimes that are pretty minor that still land you in prison for a year. Remember that just because someone has been found guilty that doesn't mean that they are. Also remember that for serious crimes you may also end up in prison while you're still awaiting trial if you're not released on bail - Arkham City is no different in that respect.
Inpatient Mental Health Patients - In other words, the type of person who used to be sent to Arkham Asylum. This includes the severely mentally ill but also some surprisingly minor cases. In fact, you can voluntarily commit yourself to Arkham City, though they'll only accept you if they believe that you may pose a threat to others. If you'd only pose a threat to yourself you're likely to very rightfully be told that this is not the place for you.
Squatters and Property Owners - When Arkham City was built, the city attempted to buy up all the land that it was to be built upon. While a majority of the people living in the area moved out, some of the people renting from the people who sold their property to the city weren't prepared to move. While most of the property owners sold, some of them weren't prepared to sell. Eventually, instead of spending years making sure that every last square inch of Arkham City was paid for and every last person was out the city simply shrugged it's shoulders, built the wall, and wished good luck to those who wouldn't leave. The reasons why they didn't leave are many - whether they actually had a reason why they wanted to be locked up in Arkham City, are determined to hang onto their property or home no matter what happens, or some other reason entirely.
Humanitarian Aid Workers - Now, there are those in Gotham City who recognize that a facility like Arkham City isn't exactly completely humane. So there are groups of people who get it into their heads that they'd like to go into Arkham City and offer things like medical care and other extra aid to the people inside the city. And they're allowed to do so, provided that they have armed guards in their group to protect them. Of course said people would get thoroughly screened first, to make sure that they're actually who they say that they are (though a properly created false identity does work), but for example a reporter would be allowed to be embedded into such a group if they wanted to do an 'Inside Arkham City' story.
Legitimate Ways Out
Criminals are released if they've served out their time or are released on parole. However, as keeping track of where a particular prisoner is can be problematic - the prisoner is expected to present themselves at the front gate at the appropriate time for release, hearings, and so forth.
Similarly, mental health patients are expected to present themselves at the front gate for their sessions, medications, and when it's time for their release as applicable.
Those who aren't officially a prisoner, a patient, or someone officially permitted to be inside Arkham City may also present themselves at the front gate and ask to leave, but that can end up being a bit of a bureaucratic nightmare - the process is known to take weeks sometimes. This is mostly because such a request is treated as a 'guilty until proven innocent' matter - the Arkham City staff will attempt to verify the person's identity, try to determine if they committed any crimes while they were inside, and try to establish whether or not the person's presence in the city is in itself a crime. This means that, on average, someone who legitimately isn't supposed to be in Arkham City is released but also gets slapped with a steep fine for trespassing. If they have evidence that the person committed a major crime while in Arkham City, they may find themselves arrested instead and, you guessed it, thrown into Arkham City as a criminal.
Of course, people inside the city for humanitarian reasons don't face that problem - the Arkham City staff have record of each of them.
However, regardless of the reason why someone is leaving Arkham City, they can expect to face intense scrutiny before they go. There are known shapeshifters and such housed within Arkham City, and the staff in charge of verifying the identity of anyone leaving Arkham City take pride in being thorough enough in their job to be sure that none of them are attempting to leave in the guise of someone else - including as a member of a humanitarian group. Expect questions to be asked and blood to be drawn. But if they have record of someone in their system, this process usually takes hours and not days.
Other Ways Out and In
When plotting out an escape, or an unauthorized entrance for that matter, there are several things you need to keep in mind. Arkham City was created by intelligent people whose main goal was to eliminate the main problem with both Blackgate Penitentiary and Arkham Asylum - that smart criminals, sometimes with superpowers, could just break out whenever they wanted. So they examined all the ways that criminals escaped from Arkham Asylum and Blackgate, especially the most common methods, and did everything in their power to eliminate that as a possibility. That doesn't mean that there aren't cracks in the system to exploit, but that does mean that even the best escape artists can't just leave whenever they want. Well, barring those with certain metahuman abilities, anyway - it's safe to say that Superman can just come and go as he wishes, for example - but for the vast majority of the prison population it's an impossible task.
But for a certain minority of people with clever minds and/or unusual abilities, escape from the facility is not so impossible. Difficult, yes - in fact, quite a bit of scheming will probably be necessary. It may take a lot of time and effort. Perhaps teaming up might help? Then again, that could mean that more could go wrong. But if you want out badly enough, the first step is realizing that no matter how hard they tried to make it escape proof, there's always some flaw to exploit.
However, in order to find the flaws, you need to know what definitely isn't flawed. Like I said before, they did everything in their power to eliminate the most common methods of escape they have record of - and they did a good job of that. This means that certain methods of escape are off the table, unless you can figure out a way to thwart every single measure they put in place. Which is, again, not impossible but not easy. So what measures did they put into place?
They monitor the entire, three-dimensional perimeter very carefully - there are helicopters patrolling the sky at all times, armed guards on the walls that shoot to kill, and they're also on the alert for any tunneling activity. Corruption during the construction of the city was minimized and the entire procedure was carefully watched - though of course certain people tried, nobody managed to sneak in a secret entrance - given Gotham's recent history, that someone would try to take advantage of the situation was expected so they were prepared for that. Once the city was completed, it was completely sealed as far as humanly possible, with the only remaining opening being the official main entrance.
That said, there is literally one giant, gaping hole that can work for certain individuals - the sky. The TYGER helicopters are on constant patrol, and the skies above Arkham City is a 'no-fly zone' for all unauthorized air traffic - if you're not supposed to be there and they see you they will shoot you without warning or mercy, and they're equipped with sensors to help make sure that they don't miss spotting something. However, if you have the ability and/or the equipment to slip past a military grade helicopter that is trying to shoot you, then there's your way in or out. The designers of the prison didn't see the need to do anything more extensive than that because the people they're trying to keep in the prison aren't known to be able to do that feat very easily at all.
Instead, they focused most of their attention on more standard things like walls and guards. The exact height of the walls around Arkham City varies based on what's around it, but it's very tall - generally at least two stories taller than whatever's immediately around it. It's thick enough for there to be a path on top, which is patrolled by TYGER guards at all times. These guards are just as quick to shoot as the helicopters - they will shoot warning shots, but only if you seem suspicious but aren't actually doing anything. Any climbing attempts, tampering with, or even touching it for too long, and they'll respond by actually trying to kill you. Also, there's a very large number of them - if you stand directly next to the wall, you're probably within range of two or three of them. The wall itself is made out of reinforced concrete - it's fireproof and bomb-resistant, so it would take a rather large blast to make a hole in the wall big enough for a person to fit through rather than merely cracking it, and of course the TYGER guards would respond to such a thing quickly and in large numbers.
Note that there is even a wall along the eastern side of Arkham City, where it connects to the ocean - they anticipated that it would not be all that difficult to make a little raft or something and try to leave Arkham City that way. It's constructed differently than the solid walls around the rest of the facility, being made of metal slats that allow the ocean water to enter and leave freely but don't allow anything larger than a very small human to leave. It's not as difficult to try to damage as the rest of the fence, and there aren't any armed guards on it, but that section of the fence is fairly far out, it's more difficult to hide from the patrolling helicopters when you're in the water, and it does have sensors covering especially the part of the fence that's below the surface.
That covers the top and sides of the prison - so what about the bottom? Attempting to dig a tunnel attracts a lot of attention very quickly - sensors were installed all the way around the perimeter specifically to detect that very activity. But while the subway line was blocked off, as well as every other known tunnel, Gotham has been inhabited for centuries and the number of undocumented tunnels boggles the mind - of course they didn't find all of them. But that means that any that exist aren't easy to find for a would-be escapee either - it's no small feat and requires a lot of luck and probably a lot of time. So much so that we request that you ask for approval from the head admin before you proceed with any plot involving a found tunnel, regardless of what it's to be used for.
Also, more should be said about the TYGER guards themselves - manipulating them is nearly impossible. They don't accept bribes, and they don't respond to many mind-effecting chemicals like fear toxin and pheromones. Outright poisonous substances and physical injury does affect them, but they are good at what they do - it's almost like they're brainwashed or something. There's also a lot of them - while the TYGER guards are well armed and equipped, they prefer to further stack the odds during any confrontation by responding in numbers much larger than what is probably actually needed.
Any attempt to escape must be made with the above in mind. And there is also another way - through the front gate. It's also not an easy way because getting through there is an entire procedure, so if you're trying to get in or out when you shouldn't be then you'll have to work your way around that. I'll explain all of that in detail next.
Coming In
The only ordinary way into Arkham City is through the main gate, which is attached to the administration offices in Wonder Tower. New prisoners and patients go through a similar process to what happens in any other prison - they get strip searched, finger printed if they haven't been already, a new file is created on them, etc. People entering for more humanitarian reasons go through a nearly identical process - if you're going to go in where you actually have contact with anyone inside, you're checked thoroughly, and even before you come in they do a thorough background check.
The part of the administrative offices that the prisoners and patients pass through is practically crawling with guards - again, TYGER guards prefer to have numbers on their side. And they tend to not be very gentle with them - this is their chance to show the new guys that anyone wearing a TYGER uniform isn't to be messed with. Some prisoners get processed and thrown into Arkham City quickly, but in some cases it can take some time - there are holding cells for prisoners that are waiting on something. Once someone gets put into Arkham City, they may be very difficult to find again quickly, so any evaluations, interrogations, etc. are done first if at all possible.
One of the things that they do during this is take any contraband items. What is and isn't contraband in Arkham City is a little different than in a regular prison. Because Arkham City is a walled off section of what used to be part of a fully functioning city, it was simply impossible to scrutinize every corner for things that prisoners normally don't have. So they didn't bother to do it at all - they did make sure to remove some things, but that's covered later on in this guide where I talk about what it's like to live in Arkham City. But when it comes to taking away contraband at the front entrance, they're a bit more relaxed than other prisons. For example, if you have a pen then they'll let you keep that. They mainly focus on taking away electronic devices, drugs, alcohol, and anything obviously dangerous - especially guns, other weapons, and things that make a good weapon even if that's not their main purpose (e.g. a hammer). Liquids, powders, and such in general get taken away just because they're not going to, for example, test to see if that clear liquid is water or something else.
Which is just as well because the last step to the process is getting put into what is known as the airlock. It's a large room - just big enough for a truck - with a heavy steel door on each end. Only one door opens at a time - that way they can put something that is entering or leaving into it, close the doors and check to make sure nothing they didn't want in there got in, and then open the other one. The area just inside Arkham City has some chain link fences that are supposed to ease the transition into the city, but if you're a new person entering the city that does little to deter the official Welcome Wagon from greeting you - whichever gang controls the area immediately in front of the main gate tends to like to jump whoever is coming in and steal anything 'nice' that they happen to have on them. Including that pen that they let you keep. After making sure you know that they're all badasses, they'll let you go, though.
For humanitarian workers or people there on other official business, a group of TYGER guards will be kind enough to escort your group through the main entrance and make sure that you make it into Arkham City proper without mishap. After that, it's up to whatever guards you bring with you to keep you safe.
Being Released
Leaving through the main gate is like coming in, but in the reverse, to a large extent. Some exceptions include the fact that, depending on the general nature of whomever is controlling the area immediately in front of the main gate, they may attempt to get in your way, even if you're legitimately supposed to be leaving. Again the TYGER guards will help humanitarian groups and such, but not regular prisoners and patients. Regular prisoners and patients approaching the airlock get the standard 'who goes there' treatment from the TYGER guards - they'll request your name and your business. There's an area immediately outside of the airlock where they clearly mark how close you can get without permission without being shot at.
Once they verify that you have a reason to go through the main gate, you go back through the airlock and they'll carefully check your identity. While you wait you go into a holding cell unless you're a humanitarian worker or similar - they have a nice waiting room for those. If you're approved for release then you go through another strip search before you're allowed out - the main focus here is to make sure that you're not carrying any messages to people outside and such, though they'll question anything questionable you may have on you.
Life Inside Arkham City
In short, it's not pleasant. Though the biggest problem is usually the company. Most of the people in Arkham City aren't horrible people though - in fact, a huge chunk of them are quiet decent even if they're quicker to try to prove that they're not weak. But that's because of the violent minority - Arkham City houses the worst dregs of human society too, both those who are fully aware that what they do is wrong and others who are completely unaware. The homicide rate within Arkham City is of course bad, but it's also not as bad as one might assume - but that's partly because the people in Arkham City are on their guard, and most of them are quick to join a gang for protection.
In fact, most of the people who aren't in some sort of a group are mentally ill in some way, though there is also the occasional person who is simply more of a hermit. The need for protection is perhaps a little more pressing for the women in the prison - they make up about 30% of the population, and they're much more likely to be mental health patients than prisoners though there's some of each gender with each status. This gender imbalance is enough to make them extra desirable as company without abuse of them being systemic - there's a lot of men in Arkham City who would treat them improperly, but there's also a lot of men in Arkham City who would be more inclined to protect them on principle if they needed it.
Of course one of the primary concerns of those inside the prison are food and water, but though that can sometimes require quite a bit of effort they're both generally obtainable, but more on that later. Some sort of a shelter or hideout is important too - it does rain regularly, and it's a good idea to have a safe place to store your stuff because actually getting stuff worth having can be tricky. But that's also not too difficult - the area enclosed by the prison is large, especially if you factor in the amount of space found within buildings - so even though the population of Arkham City isn't small, it isn't difficult to find a private corner. What's more difficult is to travel any distance through the city without running into someone who objects to you being on their turf.
While actually surviving in Arkham City is quite a bit more work than it would be outside of the city, it's still only so difficult - most people don't need to spend the entire day worrying about it. So what do they worry about? Well, anyone not resigned to the fact that they'll be in Arkham City until whenever someone decides to release them probably spends at least a little time trying to figure out a way to escape. And if you're not the type of person who is satisfied to eke out a bare minimum existence with no comforts, then you probably spend some time scavenging for things that might make your life more comfortable instead of just food and water. Or you could steal those things from someone. And if you want to keep your nice things safe, then it's a good idea to make sure that your neighbors are aware that you'll do horrible things to them if they get too close to your space. Of course, just because you're in Arkham City doesn't mean that normal human interactions don't happen - perhaps you should make friends with your neighbors instead, or even flirt with them if they're attractive. In fact, passing around rumors and gossip is a good idea - that's the best way to keep tabs on the latest Arkham City news, especially when it comes to what the larger gangs might be doing.
Unless, of course, you find yourself in one of the larger gangs. It's easier to have a comfortable life there, because you've got more people all contributing to the collection of nice things, and they tend to be hubs of the economy inside Arkham City, such as it is. But then again if the boss is a Rogue there's probably a downside to working for them. Larger gangs also usually have some larger agenda than a comfortable life, and exactly what it is depends on who is in charge of it. Whatever their overall goals and wants are don't change just because they're in Arkham City, which means that some simply want to escape because being confined gets in their way, though many of them see their incarceration as an opportunity to make some sort of a statement or simply do as they please - after all, they've been put into an environment that is highly unregulated, even if it's confined behind walls, so they have more freedom to do things without having to worry about the cops finding them.
In fact, it's way more pleasant to be in Arkham City for those that would normally be stuck in an isolation cell. They do have to worry about the TYGER guards, but it's only so difficult to hide the parts that would be objectionable from the prying eyes of a helicopter, especially since the guards don't actually care a whole lot about what they're doing. Then again, these larger gangs - and the Rogues in particular - might notice that the helicopters do tend to keep more of an eye on them than they do the rest of the prison, but they don't usually interfere. So, given the opportunity to do what they want, that's exactly what they do.
Of course... The larger gangs don't always get along very well, some of the things that they do conflict with what the others want to do, or sometimes they remember that thing you did to them, or sometimes they find a new thing to be upset about, and in Arkham City they're being kept in close proximity. This naturally leads to conflicts, especially if you start to hear rumors that they have more nice things than you do.
Turf and Possessions
Turf is important to the people in Arkham City, because everyone wants to have nice things and there aren't very many nice things in Arkham City so they're all the more precious. And a lot of those nice things are real estate - it may not be difficult to find a little hideout for yourself, but to get your hands on an actually nice one (whether your priorities are somewhere aesthetically pleasing or somewhere easy to defend) you're probably going to have to take it from someone and then defend it from someone else. And then if you get your hands on some nice things that you can't simply carry with you everywhere, you're going to have to keep it somewhere and then you need to protect that location or risk losing it.
What, exactly, is considered to be 'nice things' is a bit different inside Arkham City - most people don't care about anything that doesn't have a practical purpose like art or jewelry. Instead they care about things that are hard to find in Arkham City. The most valuable items are things that are both contraband and used up - things like drugs, alcohol, gasoline, bullets, etc. A close second is any other contraband like guns, working motors, etc. Most people don't have any of the above. And it's also hard to get things that are used up that Arkham City doesn't provide, though if you're lucky then you might find them while scavenging - like toothpaste, shampoo, or a clean roll of toilet paper. Your average person might have one of those if they want it badly enough. And they also might be able to find a few nice things that don't get used up, or at least not very fast, like a can opener or nail clippers. Individually those things aren't very valuable, but it takes enough work to gather them together that someone would consider it to be worth robbing someone for that sort of thing. Each individual item of food is also only so valuable, but if you gather enough of it together to feel nice and secure, the collection starts to be worth stealing. Especially since there's quite a number of people who are in the prison for stealing or worse already.
If you want to find more nice things and you're not inclined to steal, you may be in luck if you try to track down parts of the city that haven't been thoroughly explored and see if there's anything that's been left there that you want. After all this used to be a part of a functioning city, so normal items of all sorts were around at one point. Of course, when Arkham City was announced and this part of the city began to drain, most people took their stuff when they left. But then again, there's always the occasional odd person who didn't, and even people who took most of their stuff often carelessly left behind an item or two that they didn't care about. So if you do a lot of searching and pick a good location, you might find a few items that would make your life better.
Though if your goal is to find a gun (especially one with ammo), anything with a functional motor, or a computer (including 'small computers' like a smartphone), good luck! Before Arkham City was opened, a team did a full sweep of the prison looking for those very items - they even went so far as to purposely ruin the motors - and just the motor - of every abandoned car. Yes, and though they were thorough they weren't perfect, but they did do an excellent job so the odds that you can actually find one that they missed are so low it's practically nothing. In fact, it's probably easier to try to figure out how to throw together a makeshift one out of other things.
Because assuming you have the knowledge, there's quite a few materials you could use to build something. Of course, the easiest materials to get are parts of buildings - in addition to wood, brick, and pieces of steel, there's also more wiring and pipes than you could ever need. Then again, Arkham City is also lacking in electricity, so that limits the types of tools that are available and hampers anyone's efforts to create anything technologically advanced. Which isn't to say that you can't do it, but it does mean that it takes a lot of time to gather together all the things you'd need and possibly even to get it done given the difficulties involved. And if you do get it done, you have to be wary of the guards.
Guards
They only care about violence in the prison if someone's being killed or there's a massive fight going on - but that's only if they see it happening. Generally speaking, if it's indoors they won't notice. If it's outdoors how quickly they notice is a matter of luck, and they're slower to respond if whatever is going on looks like a major event - they like to stack their odds of success with large numbers on their side, and it takes time for them to gather together a larger squad. When they do respond, they're quite liberal about it - they've got tear gas, tasers, etc., and even a few special items just for particular Rogues with known weaknesses. And they're not afraid to use that, and if you give them one good excuse to use their gun instead then they'll use it. Most of them seem to be particular fans of batons, though. However, their goal in these instances is to 'break it up', and not truly police the prison - there wouldn't be much of a point because Arkham City doesn't have any sort of a solitary section or extra way of punishing you, except that if you do something bad enough you'll end up getting more time if they know who did it.
But they do take the time to investigate signs of particular forms of contraband items. While they don't actually care if they see someone running around with many of the things that would have been taken away while going through the front gate - in fact, it's not unusual to see a thug walking around holding a handmade club and almost literally everyone has at least a shiv - there are a few categories of items they pay attention to: guns, explosives, generators, engines, and electronics. These things could too easily be used to put together a literal jail break and the TYGER guards prefer to maintain technical superiority over the prisoners. So if they hear a gunshot, see someone collecting chemicals, hear some sort of a motor, see functioning electric lights, etc. then they'll investigate and either confiscate or destroy the offending item.
And as mentioned before, they do try to keep prisoners from outright killing each other. They don't bother to step in and break up something like a fistfight, but if they see someone obviously bent on murder then they'll step in. Of course these things can be hard to distinguish sometimes until it's too late. And when that's the case, or if they simply find someone who is dead, they'll collect the corpse and take it in to be properly identified, etc. They do sometimes find someone who is almost dead - these people get helicoptered over to the medical wing of the administration office. If you're capable of getting there under your own power, then they don't care.
Food
Each day about mid-afternoon, several trucks are taken through the airlock, full of food. The amount of food brought in is enough to feed the number of people they believe are in the prison for one day - while they know exactly the number of people who are supposed to be in Arkham City, there are aware that there are people inside who aren't supposed to be there. So the exact number is a guess, but it's a pretty close guess. Because they don't expect anyone in the city to have a working refrigerator and such, anything especially perishable is provided in canned form - which is the vast majority of it, actually. They do expect everyone to be able to figure out how to open it even if they don't find a can opener, so they don't provide those, and if you think that it's tastier heated up, then they're sure you can figure out how to do a trashcan fire.
They do not attempt to make sure that this food is distributed fairly because that would be a lot of effort on their part, and also because they know that there's only so much point to hording more food than you can eat so it will end up getting into the hands of someone who needs it. If you've got way more food than you need and someone else has none, even if you're not a very nice person who would just hand it over you can see that it's to your advantage to get them to trade you for it or something. It's not the most efficient way of distributing food, which means that sometimes people miss meals sometimes - especially in the parts of Arkham City furthest from the main gate if you don't have a gang to help you locate a good, steady source of it. Fortunately, missing meals on occasion won't kill you, and sometimes it's even possible to find a little food left over from the time when Arkham City was a regular part of the city, so while it's not completely impossible to starve it's unlikely. Being hungry is way more likely, especially if you don't have a gang to help you.
Some more notes on food: the reason why it arrives in the mid-afternoon is because the TYGER guards spend the morning inspecting the shipment. When they bring it into Arkham City, they get anyone near the main gate to unload the truck while they watch - which is not something that they generally object to because whichever gang holds the main gate tends to end up rich between the stolen contraband and getting people to trade them things for food. Of course, that makes the location more desirable than pretty much anywhere else in Arkham City, so it's hotly contested and usually held by an especially strong gang. However, that strong gang better not upset the TYGER guards - they've been known to leave before they've finished delivering the entire shipment if those receiving it don't behave themselves.
Water
The Bowery and Park Row are still connected to the city's main water supply. They are narrow pipes that flow into Arkham City so they didn't seem to be very much of a security hazard. Which means in theory it's easy to get water in those parts of the city, but in practice many of the water systems there were automated. This means that the places you can actually get water to flow out of the tap are spotty at best - enterprising gangs who find one are likely to set up shop and ask for something in return for water. In Amusement Mile and the Industrial District there's no connection to the city's water supply at all, so in a similar way to food they have a harder time getting a steady supply. They do have drinking fountains in the area just north of the airlock.
Administrative Services
Also just north of the airlock is the Administrative Services center. This is the access point for prisoners who have some sort of a reason to interact with prison staff or other people not held inside the prison. This includes visitation, hearings of all kinds, therapy appointments, doctor visits, etc. This area is, naturally, crawling with TYGER guards and the rooms inside are specifically designed to separate the prisoner or inmate from the person they're interacting with - not unlike classic visitation rooms where the people talking are separated by glass, except there are many rooms that offer more privacy for situations where that is required. While this minimizes contact, for things like medical treatment that require actual physical contact with a staff member there are a small number of rooms for this purpose, and actual doorways that provide a path between the secured area of the prison, through the administration building, and to the outside. However, there are multiple doorways secured with magnetic seals and opened with fingerprint scanners between that area and the main administrative offices. And it's also standard procedure for there to be a TYGER guard present for all direct interactions even if the person is considered harmless - for those who aren't considered harmless, more than one is required. Sometimes many more.
While all of these services are officially provided, in practice it isn't that easy. If you set an appointment to meet with a patient or prisoner, it's very possible that they won't show - whether they didn't have access to a calendar or a clock, they found their route to the area blocked by some gang, or they didn't feel like showing up it's really easy for someone to just disappear in Arkham City and not necessarily because they're dead. And it's not standard practice for anyone to actually try to track down someone who missed an appointment - it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, especially if the person doesn't want to be found, so they don't even try.
There is a medical wing, for prisoners or patients who are hurt or ill and can't be put into the general population - yet another location crawling with TYGER guards. It's adjacent to the rest of the Administrative Services center, and kept just as secured, though the guards aren't quite as omnipresent - then again, it's also standard practice to handcuff people to their beds, just in case. Because patients are there for the longer term, they are searched immediately after they arrive and before they're sent back into the prison.
Life Outside Arkham City
For the most part, life in the rest of Gotham City continues as normal. However, Arkham City is a very hot political issue - it does make a lot of people feel more secure to know that Gotham's criminals, especially the more dangerous ones, are being held more securely. However, there is the question of just how humane it is - you hear the phrase 'cruel and unusual' mentioned a lot.
Supporters are quick to defend it, however, especially since those behind it are quick to emphasize that this is only Phase 1 of the project - their first priority is to make sure that the facility is secure so that there will be no more escapes. Once that problem is fully addressed, then they can worry about improving conditions. People who aren't happy with that answer are the ones who are behind the humanitarian groups.
And this does present a problem for those who try to enforce the law (whether police or vigilante) who feel that putting someone in Arkham City is inhumane - they may find themselves more likely to let criminals go, especially if their crimes are minor.
Of course, there's also all of the people who used to live or have property in that part of the city, even if they left - most of them aren't happy, even though the city officially bought the property of anyone who was willing to sell. Partly because the price the city paid for the property wasn't very high at all, and partly because they felt forced out even though they strictly weren't.
All of this being the case, now is a very busy time for politicians, reporters, and any other person whose opinions on it would be listened to. Especially those people who know how to turn these sorts of things to their advantage.
Feel Free To Reply To This Post
If you have a question about Arkham City that isn't answered here, feel free to ask! You can also PM me if you want to, but if you ask it in a reply here then everyone will be able to see the answer so that's helpful.
If you're just wanting basic information about Arkham City, the TLDR version is 'it's like the video game'. If you've not played the video game, watch about 15 minutes of a Let's Play on YouTube and you'll have the jist. This guide gets more into the nitty gritty details for those who want to know more nitty gritty details, especially about some of the day to day aspects of how the prison works that weren't covered by the video game. Note: some of these details are different than what is indicated by the video game because I tweaked it - the most obvious being that there's clearly some electricity flowing all over the place in the video game. More picturesque, yes, but why would they let them have electricity when it's easy to take that away from them, especially given what that would help you make?
Anyway. I recommend finding the titles to the major sections of this guide and reading the parts that you care about for whatever your purposes are. Or read the whole thing - up to you.
The Ins and Outs of Arkham City
Types of people in Arkham City
The people who are in Arkham City fall into roughly four categories, roughly in order from the most to least common:
Criminals - Those who have been found guilty of any crime severe enough to merit a prison sentence may find themselves in Arkham City. Those who are found guilty of crimes that would only merit a shorter stay in jail do not end up in Arkham City, but there are certain crimes that are pretty minor that still land you in prison for a year. Remember that just because someone has been found guilty that doesn't mean that they are. Also remember that for serious crimes you may also end up in prison while you're still awaiting trial if you're not released on bail - Arkham City is no different in that respect.
Inpatient Mental Health Patients - In other words, the type of person who used to be sent to Arkham Asylum. This includes the severely mentally ill but also some surprisingly minor cases. In fact, you can voluntarily commit yourself to Arkham City, though they'll only accept you if they believe that you may pose a threat to others. If you'd only pose a threat to yourself you're likely to very rightfully be told that this is not the place for you.
Squatters and Property Owners - When Arkham City was built, the city attempted to buy up all the land that it was to be built upon. While a majority of the people living in the area moved out, some of the people renting from the people who sold their property to the city weren't prepared to move. While most of the property owners sold, some of them weren't prepared to sell. Eventually, instead of spending years making sure that every last square inch of Arkham City was paid for and every last person was out the city simply shrugged it's shoulders, built the wall, and wished good luck to those who wouldn't leave. The reasons why they didn't leave are many - whether they actually had a reason why they wanted to be locked up in Arkham City, are determined to hang onto their property or home no matter what happens, or some other reason entirely.
- Note: Property owners come in all shapes and sizes - one who happens to be wealthy and has the right connections might be able to come to an arrangement with Arkham City, though only a few at most would be able to manage it. If, and only if, the property owner is able to prove that they still own a piece of property in Arkham City, they can reach this piece of property via helicopter that they can provide themselves, and also provide for their own protection, they may seek approval from the Arkham City administration (i.e. Jeremiah Arkham) for their helicopters to enter Arkham City airspace so that they can reach their property. Naturally this can be done under the guise of some front company that doesn't really exist or somesuch - however, the Arkham City administration can revoke this permission at any time and will almost undoubtedly do so if they're suspected of smuggling goods or people in and out of the city. For more info on this, contact an admin.
Humanitarian Aid Workers - Now, there are those in Gotham City who recognize that a facility like Arkham City isn't exactly completely humane. So there are groups of people who get it into their heads that they'd like to go into Arkham City and offer things like medical care and other extra aid to the people inside the city. And they're allowed to do so, provided that they have armed guards in their group to protect them. Of course said people would get thoroughly screened first, to make sure that they're actually who they say that they are (though a properly created false identity does work), but for example a reporter would be allowed to be embedded into such a group if they wanted to do an 'Inside Arkham City' story.
Legitimate Ways Out
Criminals are released if they've served out their time or are released on parole. However, as keeping track of where a particular prisoner is can be problematic - the prisoner is expected to present themselves at the front gate at the appropriate time for release, hearings, and so forth.
Similarly, mental health patients are expected to present themselves at the front gate for their sessions, medications, and when it's time for their release as applicable.
Those who aren't officially a prisoner, a patient, or someone officially permitted to be inside Arkham City may also present themselves at the front gate and ask to leave, but that can end up being a bit of a bureaucratic nightmare - the process is known to take weeks sometimes. This is mostly because such a request is treated as a 'guilty until proven innocent' matter - the Arkham City staff will attempt to verify the person's identity, try to determine if they committed any crimes while they were inside, and try to establish whether or not the person's presence in the city is in itself a crime. This means that, on average, someone who legitimately isn't supposed to be in Arkham City is released but also gets slapped with a steep fine for trespassing. If they have evidence that the person committed a major crime while in Arkham City, they may find themselves arrested instead and, you guessed it, thrown into Arkham City as a criminal.
Of course, people inside the city for humanitarian reasons don't face that problem - the Arkham City staff have record of each of them.
However, regardless of the reason why someone is leaving Arkham City, they can expect to face intense scrutiny before they go. There are known shapeshifters and such housed within Arkham City, and the staff in charge of verifying the identity of anyone leaving Arkham City take pride in being thorough enough in their job to be sure that none of them are attempting to leave in the guise of someone else - including as a member of a humanitarian group. Expect questions to be asked and blood to be drawn. But if they have record of someone in their system, this process usually takes hours and not days.
Other Ways Out and In
When plotting out an escape, or an unauthorized entrance for that matter, there are several things you need to keep in mind. Arkham City was created by intelligent people whose main goal was to eliminate the main problem with both Blackgate Penitentiary and Arkham Asylum - that smart criminals, sometimes with superpowers, could just break out whenever they wanted. So they examined all the ways that criminals escaped from Arkham Asylum and Blackgate, especially the most common methods, and did everything in their power to eliminate that as a possibility. That doesn't mean that there aren't cracks in the system to exploit, but that does mean that even the best escape artists can't just leave whenever they want. Well, barring those with certain metahuman abilities, anyway - it's safe to say that Superman can just come and go as he wishes, for example - but for the vast majority of the prison population it's an impossible task.
But for a certain minority of people with clever minds and/or unusual abilities, escape from the facility is not so impossible. Difficult, yes - in fact, quite a bit of scheming will probably be necessary. It may take a lot of time and effort. Perhaps teaming up might help? Then again, that could mean that more could go wrong. But if you want out badly enough, the first step is realizing that no matter how hard they tried to make it escape proof, there's always some flaw to exploit.
However, in order to find the flaws, you need to know what definitely isn't flawed. Like I said before, they did everything in their power to eliminate the most common methods of escape they have record of - and they did a good job of that. This means that certain methods of escape are off the table, unless you can figure out a way to thwart every single measure they put in place. Which is, again, not impossible but not easy. So what measures did they put into place?
They monitor the entire, three-dimensional perimeter very carefully - there are helicopters patrolling the sky at all times, armed guards on the walls that shoot to kill, and they're also on the alert for any tunneling activity. Corruption during the construction of the city was minimized and the entire procedure was carefully watched - though of course certain people tried, nobody managed to sneak in a secret entrance - given Gotham's recent history, that someone would try to take advantage of the situation was expected so they were prepared for that. Once the city was completed, it was completely sealed as far as humanly possible, with the only remaining opening being the official main entrance.
That said, there is literally one giant, gaping hole that can work for certain individuals - the sky. The TYGER helicopters are on constant patrol, and the skies above Arkham City is a 'no-fly zone' for all unauthorized air traffic - if you're not supposed to be there and they see you they will shoot you without warning or mercy, and they're equipped with sensors to help make sure that they don't miss spotting something. However, if you have the ability and/or the equipment to slip past a military grade helicopter that is trying to shoot you, then there's your way in or out. The designers of the prison didn't see the need to do anything more extensive than that because the people they're trying to keep in the prison aren't known to be able to do that feat very easily at all.
Instead, they focused most of their attention on more standard things like walls and guards. The exact height of the walls around Arkham City varies based on what's around it, but it's very tall - generally at least two stories taller than whatever's immediately around it. It's thick enough for there to be a path on top, which is patrolled by TYGER guards at all times. These guards are just as quick to shoot as the helicopters - they will shoot warning shots, but only if you seem suspicious but aren't actually doing anything. Any climbing attempts, tampering with, or even touching it for too long, and they'll respond by actually trying to kill you. Also, there's a very large number of them - if you stand directly next to the wall, you're probably within range of two or three of them. The wall itself is made out of reinforced concrete - it's fireproof and bomb-resistant, so it would take a rather large blast to make a hole in the wall big enough for a person to fit through rather than merely cracking it, and of course the TYGER guards would respond to such a thing quickly and in large numbers.
Note that there is even a wall along the eastern side of Arkham City, where it connects to the ocean - they anticipated that it would not be all that difficult to make a little raft or something and try to leave Arkham City that way. It's constructed differently than the solid walls around the rest of the facility, being made of metal slats that allow the ocean water to enter and leave freely but don't allow anything larger than a very small human to leave. It's not as difficult to try to damage as the rest of the fence, and there aren't any armed guards on it, but that section of the fence is fairly far out, it's more difficult to hide from the patrolling helicopters when you're in the water, and it does have sensors covering especially the part of the fence that's below the surface.
That covers the top and sides of the prison - so what about the bottom? Attempting to dig a tunnel attracts a lot of attention very quickly - sensors were installed all the way around the perimeter specifically to detect that very activity. But while the subway line was blocked off, as well as every other known tunnel, Gotham has been inhabited for centuries and the number of undocumented tunnels boggles the mind - of course they didn't find all of them. But that means that any that exist aren't easy to find for a would-be escapee either - it's no small feat and requires a lot of luck and probably a lot of time. So much so that we request that you ask for approval from the head admin before you proceed with any plot involving a found tunnel, regardless of what it's to be used for.
Also, more should be said about the TYGER guards themselves - manipulating them is nearly impossible. They don't accept bribes, and they don't respond to many mind-effecting chemicals like fear toxin and pheromones. Outright poisonous substances and physical injury does affect them, but they are good at what they do - it's almost like they're brainwashed or something. There's also a lot of them - while the TYGER guards are well armed and equipped, they prefer to further stack the odds during any confrontation by responding in numbers much larger than what is probably actually needed.
Any attempt to escape must be made with the above in mind. And there is also another way - through the front gate. It's also not an easy way because getting through there is an entire procedure, so if you're trying to get in or out when you shouldn't be then you'll have to work your way around that. I'll explain all of that in detail next.
Coming In
The only ordinary way into Arkham City is through the main gate, which is attached to the administration offices in Wonder Tower. New prisoners and patients go through a similar process to what happens in any other prison - they get strip searched, finger printed if they haven't been already, a new file is created on them, etc. People entering for more humanitarian reasons go through a nearly identical process - if you're going to go in where you actually have contact with anyone inside, you're checked thoroughly, and even before you come in they do a thorough background check.
The part of the administrative offices that the prisoners and patients pass through is practically crawling with guards - again, TYGER guards prefer to have numbers on their side. And they tend to not be very gentle with them - this is their chance to show the new guys that anyone wearing a TYGER uniform isn't to be messed with. Some prisoners get processed and thrown into Arkham City quickly, but in some cases it can take some time - there are holding cells for prisoners that are waiting on something. Once someone gets put into Arkham City, they may be very difficult to find again quickly, so any evaluations, interrogations, etc. are done first if at all possible.
One of the things that they do during this is take any contraband items. What is and isn't contraband in Arkham City is a little different than in a regular prison. Because Arkham City is a walled off section of what used to be part of a fully functioning city, it was simply impossible to scrutinize every corner for things that prisoners normally don't have. So they didn't bother to do it at all - they did make sure to remove some things, but that's covered later on in this guide where I talk about what it's like to live in Arkham City. But when it comes to taking away contraband at the front entrance, they're a bit more relaxed than other prisons. For example, if you have a pen then they'll let you keep that. They mainly focus on taking away electronic devices, drugs, alcohol, and anything obviously dangerous - especially guns, other weapons, and things that make a good weapon even if that's not their main purpose (e.g. a hammer). Liquids, powders, and such in general get taken away just because they're not going to, for example, test to see if that clear liquid is water or something else.
Which is just as well because the last step to the process is getting put into what is known as the airlock. It's a large room - just big enough for a truck - with a heavy steel door on each end. Only one door opens at a time - that way they can put something that is entering or leaving into it, close the doors and check to make sure nothing they didn't want in there got in, and then open the other one. The area just inside Arkham City has some chain link fences that are supposed to ease the transition into the city, but if you're a new person entering the city that does little to deter the official Welcome Wagon from greeting you - whichever gang controls the area immediately in front of the main gate tends to like to jump whoever is coming in and steal anything 'nice' that they happen to have on them. Including that pen that they let you keep. After making sure you know that they're all badasses, they'll let you go, though.
For humanitarian workers or people there on other official business, a group of TYGER guards will be kind enough to escort your group through the main entrance and make sure that you make it into Arkham City proper without mishap. After that, it's up to whatever guards you bring with you to keep you safe.
Being Released
Leaving through the main gate is like coming in, but in the reverse, to a large extent. Some exceptions include the fact that, depending on the general nature of whomever is controlling the area immediately in front of the main gate, they may attempt to get in your way, even if you're legitimately supposed to be leaving. Again the TYGER guards will help humanitarian groups and such, but not regular prisoners and patients. Regular prisoners and patients approaching the airlock get the standard 'who goes there' treatment from the TYGER guards - they'll request your name and your business. There's an area immediately outside of the airlock where they clearly mark how close you can get without permission without being shot at.
Once they verify that you have a reason to go through the main gate, you go back through the airlock and they'll carefully check your identity. While you wait you go into a holding cell unless you're a humanitarian worker or similar - they have a nice waiting room for those. If you're approved for release then you go through another strip search before you're allowed out - the main focus here is to make sure that you're not carrying any messages to people outside and such, though they'll question anything questionable you may have on you.
Life Inside Arkham City
In short, it's not pleasant. Though the biggest problem is usually the company. Most of the people in Arkham City aren't horrible people though - in fact, a huge chunk of them are quiet decent even if they're quicker to try to prove that they're not weak. But that's because of the violent minority - Arkham City houses the worst dregs of human society too, both those who are fully aware that what they do is wrong and others who are completely unaware. The homicide rate within Arkham City is of course bad, but it's also not as bad as one might assume - but that's partly because the people in Arkham City are on their guard, and most of them are quick to join a gang for protection.
In fact, most of the people who aren't in some sort of a group are mentally ill in some way, though there is also the occasional person who is simply more of a hermit. The need for protection is perhaps a little more pressing for the women in the prison - they make up about 30% of the population, and they're much more likely to be mental health patients than prisoners though there's some of each gender with each status. This gender imbalance is enough to make them extra desirable as company without abuse of them being systemic - there's a lot of men in Arkham City who would treat them improperly, but there's also a lot of men in Arkham City who would be more inclined to protect them on principle if they needed it.
Of course one of the primary concerns of those inside the prison are food and water, but though that can sometimes require quite a bit of effort they're both generally obtainable, but more on that later. Some sort of a shelter or hideout is important too - it does rain regularly, and it's a good idea to have a safe place to store your stuff because actually getting stuff worth having can be tricky. But that's also not too difficult - the area enclosed by the prison is large, especially if you factor in the amount of space found within buildings - so even though the population of Arkham City isn't small, it isn't difficult to find a private corner. What's more difficult is to travel any distance through the city without running into someone who objects to you being on their turf.
While actually surviving in Arkham City is quite a bit more work than it would be outside of the city, it's still only so difficult - most people don't need to spend the entire day worrying about it. So what do they worry about? Well, anyone not resigned to the fact that they'll be in Arkham City until whenever someone decides to release them probably spends at least a little time trying to figure out a way to escape. And if you're not the type of person who is satisfied to eke out a bare minimum existence with no comforts, then you probably spend some time scavenging for things that might make your life more comfortable instead of just food and water. Or you could steal those things from someone. And if you want to keep your nice things safe, then it's a good idea to make sure that your neighbors are aware that you'll do horrible things to them if they get too close to your space. Of course, just because you're in Arkham City doesn't mean that normal human interactions don't happen - perhaps you should make friends with your neighbors instead, or even flirt with them if they're attractive. In fact, passing around rumors and gossip is a good idea - that's the best way to keep tabs on the latest Arkham City news, especially when it comes to what the larger gangs might be doing.
Unless, of course, you find yourself in one of the larger gangs. It's easier to have a comfortable life there, because you've got more people all contributing to the collection of nice things, and they tend to be hubs of the economy inside Arkham City, such as it is. But then again if the boss is a Rogue there's probably a downside to working for them. Larger gangs also usually have some larger agenda than a comfortable life, and exactly what it is depends on who is in charge of it. Whatever their overall goals and wants are don't change just because they're in Arkham City, which means that some simply want to escape because being confined gets in their way, though many of them see their incarceration as an opportunity to make some sort of a statement or simply do as they please - after all, they've been put into an environment that is highly unregulated, even if it's confined behind walls, so they have more freedom to do things without having to worry about the cops finding them.
In fact, it's way more pleasant to be in Arkham City for those that would normally be stuck in an isolation cell. They do have to worry about the TYGER guards, but it's only so difficult to hide the parts that would be objectionable from the prying eyes of a helicopter, especially since the guards don't actually care a whole lot about what they're doing. Then again, these larger gangs - and the Rogues in particular - might notice that the helicopters do tend to keep more of an eye on them than they do the rest of the prison, but they don't usually interfere. So, given the opportunity to do what they want, that's exactly what they do.
Of course... The larger gangs don't always get along very well, some of the things that they do conflict with what the others want to do, or sometimes they remember that thing you did to them, or sometimes they find a new thing to be upset about, and in Arkham City they're being kept in close proximity. This naturally leads to conflicts, especially if you start to hear rumors that they have more nice things than you do.
Turf and Possessions
Turf is important to the people in Arkham City, because everyone wants to have nice things and there aren't very many nice things in Arkham City so they're all the more precious. And a lot of those nice things are real estate - it may not be difficult to find a little hideout for yourself, but to get your hands on an actually nice one (whether your priorities are somewhere aesthetically pleasing or somewhere easy to defend) you're probably going to have to take it from someone and then defend it from someone else. And then if you get your hands on some nice things that you can't simply carry with you everywhere, you're going to have to keep it somewhere and then you need to protect that location or risk losing it.
What, exactly, is considered to be 'nice things' is a bit different inside Arkham City - most people don't care about anything that doesn't have a practical purpose like art or jewelry. Instead they care about things that are hard to find in Arkham City. The most valuable items are things that are both contraband and used up - things like drugs, alcohol, gasoline, bullets, etc. A close second is any other contraband like guns, working motors, etc. Most people don't have any of the above. And it's also hard to get things that are used up that Arkham City doesn't provide, though if you're lucky then you might find them while scavenging - like toothpaste, shampoo, or a clean roll of toilet paper. Your average person might have one of those if they want it badly enough. And they also might be able to find a few nice things that don't get used up, or at least not very fast, like a can opener or nail clippers. Individually those things aren't very valuable, but it takes enough work to gather them together that someone would consider it to be worth robbing someone for that sort of thing. Each individual item of food is also only so valuable, but if you gather enough of it together to feel nice and secure, the collection starts to be worth stealing. Especially since there's quite a number of people who are in the prison for stealing or worse already.
If you want to find more nice things and you're not inclined to steal, you may be in luck if you try to track down parts of the city that haven't been thoroughly explored and see if there's anything that's been left there that you want. After all this used to be a part of a functioning city, so normal items of all sorts were around at one point. Of course, when Arkham City was announced and this part of the city began to drain, most people took their stuff when they left. But then again, there's always the occasional odd person who didn't, and even people who took most of their stuff often carelessly left behind an item or two that they didn't care about. So if you do a lot of searching and pick a good location, you might find a few items that would make your life better.
Though if your goal is to find a gun (especially one with ammo), anything with a functional motor, or a computer (including 'small computers' like a smartphone), good luck! Before Arkham City was opened, a team did a full sweep of the prison looking for those very items - they even went so far as to purposely ruin the motors - and just the motor - of every abandoned car. Yes, and though they were thorough they weren't perfect, but they did do an excellent job so the odds that you can actually find one that they missed are so low it's practically nothing. In fact, it's probably easier to try to figure out how to throw together a makeshift one out of other things.
Because assuming you have the knowledge, there's quite a few materials you could use to build something. Of course, the easiest materials to get are parts of buildings - in addition to wood, brick, and pieces of steel, there's also more wiring and pipes than you could ever need. Then again, Arkham City is also lacking in electricity, so that limits the types of tools that are available and hampers anyone's efforts to create anything technologically advanced. Which isn't to say that you can't do it, but it does mean that it takes a lot of time to gather together all the things you'd need and possibly even to get it done given the difficulties involved. And if you do get it done, you have to be wary of the guards.
Guards
They only care about violence in the prison if someone's being killed or there's a massive fight going on - but that's only if they see it happening. Generally speaking, if it's indoors they won't notice. If it's outdoors how quickly they notice is a matter of luck, and they're slower to respond if whatever is going on looks like a major event - they like to stack their odds of success with large numbers on their side, and it takes time for them to gather together a larger squad. When they do respond, they're quite liberal about it - they've got tear gas, tasers, etc., and even a few special items just for particular Rogues with known weaknesses. And they're not afraid to use that, and if you give them one good excuse to use their gun instead then they'll use it. Most of them seem to be particular fans of batons, though. However, their goal in these instances is to 'break it up', and not truly police the prison - there wouldn't be much of a point because Arkham City doesn't have any sort of a solitary section or extra way of punishing you, except that if you do something bad enough you'll end up getting more time if they know who did it.
But they do take the time to investigate signs of particular forms of contraband items. While they don't actually care if they see someone running around with many of the things that would have been taken away while going through the front gate - in fact, it's not unusual to see a thug walking around holding a handmade club and almost literally everyone has at least a shiv - there are a few categories of items they pay attention to: guns, explosives, generators, engines, and electronics. These things could too easily be used to put together a literal jail break and the TYGER guards prefer to maintain technical superiority over the prisoners. So if they hear a gunshot, see someone collecting chemicals, hear some sort of a motor, see functioning electric lights, etc. then they'll investigate and either confiscate or destroy the offending item.
And as mentioned before, they do try to keep prisoners from outright killing each other. They don't bother to step in and break up something like a fistfight, but if they see someone obviously bent on murder then they'll step in. Of course these things can be hard to distinguish sometimes until it's too late. And when that's the case, or if they simply find someone who is dead, they'll collect the corpse and take it in to be properly identified, etc. They do sometimes find someone who is almost dead - these people get helicoptered over to the medical wing of the administration office. If you're capable of getting there under your own power, then they don't care.
Food
Each day about mid-afternoon, several trucks are taken through the airlock, full of food. The amount of food brought in is enough to feed the number of people they believe are in the prison for one day - while they know exactly the number of people who are supposed to be in Arkham City, there are aware that there are people inside who aren't supposed to be there. So the exact number is a guess, but it's a pretty close guess. Because they don't expect anyone in the city to have a working refrigerator and such, anything especially perishable is provided in canned form - which is the vast majority of it, actually. They do expect everyone to be able to figure out how to open it even if they don't find a can opener, so they don't provide those, and if you think that it's tastier heated up, then they're sure you can figure out how to do a trashcan fire.
They do not attempt to make sure that this food is distributed fairly because that would be a lot of effort on their part, and also because they know that there's only so much point to hording more food than you can eat so it will end up getting into the hands of someone who needs it. If you've got way more food than you need and someone else has none, even if you're not a very nice person who would just hand it over you can see that it's to your advantage to get them to trade you for it or something. It's not the most efficient way of distributing food, which means that sometimes people miss meals sometimes - especially in the parts of Arkham City furthest from the main gate if you don't have a gang to help you locate a good, steady source of it. Fortunately, missing meals on occasion won't kill you, and sometimes it's even possible to find a little food left over from the time when Arkham City was a regular part of the city, so while it's not completely impossible to starve it's unlikely. Being hungry is way more likely, especially if you don't have a gang to help you.
Some more notes on food: the reason why it arrives in the mid-afternoon is because the TYGER guards spend the morning inspecting the shipment. When they bring it into Arkham City, they get anyone near the main gate to unload the truck while they watch - which is not something that they generally object to because whichever gang holds the main gate tends to end up rich between the stolen contraband and getting people to trade them things for food. Of course, that makes the location more desirable than pretty much anywhere else in Arkham City, so it's hotly contested and usually held by an especially strong gang. However, that strong gang better not upset the TYGER guards - they've been known to leave before they've finished delivering the entire shipment if those receiving it don't behave themselves.
Water
The Bowery and Park Row are still connected to the city's main water supply. They are narrow pipes that flow into Arkham City so they didn't seem to be very much of a security hazard. Which means in theory it's easy to get water in those parts of the city, but in practice many of the water systems there were automated. This means that the places you can actually get water to flow out of the tap are spotty at best - enterprising gangs who find one are likely to set up shop and ask for something in return for water. In Amusement Mile and the Industrial District there's no connection to the city's water supply at all, so in a similar way to food they have a harder time getting a steady supply. They do have drinking fountains in the area just north of the airlock.
Administrative Services
Also just north of the airlock is the Administrative Services center. This is the access point for prisoners who have some sort of a reason to interact with prison staff or other people not held inside the prison. This includes visitation, hearings of all kinds, therapy appointments, doctor visits, etc. This area is, naturally, crawling with TYGER guards and the rooms inside are specifically designed to separate the prisoner or inmate from the person they're interacting with - not unlike classic visitation rooms where the people talking are separated by glass, except there are many rooms that offer more privacy for situations where that is required. While this minimizes contact, for things like medical treatment that require actual physical contact with a staff member there are a small number of rooms for this purpose, and actual doorways that provide a path between the secured area of the prison, through the administration building, and to the outside. However, there are multiple doorways secured with magnetic seals and opened with fingerprint scanners between that area and the main administrative offices. And it's also standard procedure for there to be a TYGER guard present for all direct interactions even if the person is considered harmless - for those who aren't considered harmless, more than one is required. Sometimes many more.
While all of these services are officially provided, in practice it isn't that easy. If you set an appointment to meet with a patient or prisoner, it's very possible that they won't show - whether they didn't have access to a calendar or a clock, they found their route to the area blocked by some gang, or they didn't feel like showing up it's really easy for someone to just disappear in Arkham City and not necessarily because they're dead. And it's not standard practice for anyone to actually try to track down someone who missed an appointment - it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, especially if the person doesn't want to be found, so they don't even try.
There is a medical wing, for prisoners or patients who are hurt or ill and can't be put into the general population - yet another location crawling with TYGER guards. It's adjacent to the rest of the Administrative Services center, and kept just as secured, though the guards aren't quite as omnipresent - then again, it's also standard practice to handcuff people to their beds, just in case. Because patients are there for the longer term, they are searched immediately after they arrive and before they're sent back into the prison.
Life Outside Arkham City
For the most part, life in the rest of Gotham City continues as normal. However, Arkham City is a very hot political issue - it does make a lot of people feel more secure to know that Gotham's criminals, especially the more dangerous ones, are being held more securely. However, there is the question of just how humane it is - you hear the phrase 'cruel and unusual' mentioned a lot.
Supporters are quick to defend it, however, especially since those behind it are quick to emphasize that this is only Phase 1 of the project - their first priority is to make sure that the facility is secure so that there will be no more escapes. Once that problem is fully addressed, then they can worry about improving conditions. People who aren't happy with that answer are the ones who are behind the humanitarian groups.
And this does present a problem for those who try to enforce the law (whether police or vigilante) who feel that putting someone in Arkham City is inhumane - they may find themselves more likely to let criminals go, especially if their crimes are minor.
Of course, there's also all of the people who used to live or have property in that part of the city, even if they left - most of them aren't happy, even though the city officially bought the property of anyone who was willing to sell. Partly because the price the city paid for the property wasn't very high at all, and partly because they felt forced out even though they strictly weren't.
All of this being the case, now is a very busy time for politicians, reporters, and any other person whose opinions on it would be listened to. Especially those people who know how to turn these sorts of things to their advantage.
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If you have a question about Arkham City that isn't answered here, feel free to ask! You can also PM me if you want to, but if you ask it in a reply here then everyone will be able to see the answer so that's helpful.
