I think if we’re going to tackle the “Dick wanted to send Tim to Arkham” demonizing Dick, woobifying Tim bs we also have to tackle the “Dick put Jason in Arkham at the same time the Joker was there and Jason was traumatized by it” demonizing Dick, woobifying Jason bs, because they stem from the same place with the same goal and they’re both completely non-canon
I mean...you're right and you should say it.
(General Warning for Tony Daniel's and Grant Morrison's shitty Jason characterization that created this situation in the first place. You have been warned)
Okay, so like...every time 'Dick sent Jason to Arkham!' discourse pops up, I always want to remind people of four things:
The Joker wasn't there. Literally. The Joker. Was. Not. There. Jason never interacted with the Joker, he never saw the Joker, he was never once in the Joker's presence during this arc. It didn't happen.
Jason being sent to Arkham rather than somewhere like Blackgate was explicitly for Jason's own self-protection, because he would have been flat-out murdered in a normal prison (and in fact, he nearly was the second he was transferred). Jason being in Arkham was Dick's personal preference because it meant Jason had an actual chance at rehabilitation rather than being shanked the second he walked out of his cell. However, Dick didn’t actually send him there. That’s just where he ended up.
Jason's canonical actions at the time justified his incarceration at a prison facility specifically geared towards working with criminals with poor mental health rather than being left to the 'normal' prison system.
Dick was actively working to improve Arkham's conditions and spent several issues in various comics dismantling its corrupt leadership and practices (though it's not stated, it's implied that he was so dedicated to it because of his own experiences when he was trapped, drugged, and tortured there during Batman RIP). This was explicitly shown on several occasions, and we're also explicitly shown that Jason is genuinely being helped. He doesn't want to be helped and said help is so-so at being effective (because...Morrison), but he was hardly being tortured or shut away in a straitjacket 24/7.
The big things I always want to remind people is that a) Joker was literally never in Arkham at the same time as Jason (he was free and causing mayhem around Gotham during Jason's Arkham arc) and b) Jason was incredibly unstable during this arc. You all have to understand that at the time Dick handed Jason over to Gordon, Jason had JUST been waltzing around as a killer Batman and nearly killed Tim (again) in Battle for the Cowl. In the story where he was arrested, he was casually murdering criminals and uploading pics of their dead bodies to social media with his new teen sidekick. This isn't a situation where Dick was just like "well he's a villain and villains go to Arkham." Jason was doing some incredibly messed up stuff and basically dared Dick to take him on while doing so.
Jason's actions weren't particularly in character during this arc, but Dick had pretty legitimate reasons for thinking so given his words/actions in Battle for the Cowl; it's not like the decision was made on a whim. Also, a lot of people maliciously misrepresent both how much of a say Dick had in where Jason was placed and his perspective on Jason in general. He was both genuinely trying to help Jason and constrained by what he could do with Gordon standing right there:
"Look at yourself, Jason. You're a mess. Everything's a mess. Stop all this...and let us help you." "Help me? It's...too late for me, Grayson. And it was always too late." -Batman and Robin (2009) #6
Dick handed Jason over to Gordon, and the legal system put him in Arkham over Blackgate because of the danger he posed. However, Dick actually petitioned for Arkham over a normal prison not because he agreed with that assessment, but because Jason wouldn't be safe in Blackgate. Dick even says this to Bruce when Jason (who's scheming up a prison break) puts in a transfer request to a regular prison:
"He won't be safe in a conventional prison...there will be a list of enemies a mile long locked up in there with him. Unless he's in twenty-four hour protective custody, all he'll be doing is fending off attacks. Why would he put himself at such risk?" -Batman and Robin (2009) #23
So does Bruce, by the way, though he's uh...characteristically blunt and Batman-y about it:
"You're in Arkham for your own safety." -Batman and Robin (2009) #23
And Dick does try to make sure Jason's in an environment where he can be helped; again, Dick spends a lot of time during his tenure as Batman specifically and explicitly cleaning up the corruption in and around Arkham's administration and making sure the Asylum treats its inmates fairly and with compassion; it's the entire plot of the Arkham Reborn mini, and we also get a couple of Batman issues dedicated to it as he tracked down and turned in Dr. Jeremiah Arkham, the then-Head of Arkham Asylum.
Dick spent basically all of Jason's time in Arkham worried about Jason's safety...and he was right to, by the way; when Jason's transfer request is approved, he does, in fact, spend basically all of his time trying not to get killed (he also killed around 100 people in his prison break scheme so again: this version of Jason was absolutely not in a place where he should have been allowed to participate in general society. This is not post-Flashpoint!Jason, whose story and personality was drastically softened to "rebel with a cause" as DC fully committed to the anti-hero direction; this is full-on Villain!Jason at his worst).
Since Jason basically disappears after his prison break and retrieval of Scarlet and we don't see him again before the reboot, we have no idea if his time in Arkham helped him (if at all); however, it's implied that he still doesn't feel much remorse for his actions and he's ready to continue wreaking havoc on Gotham.
Morrison's characterization was fucked up, but within the context of the story written, Jason's incarceration in Arkham was both justified and a genuine attempt on Dick's part to keep him safe and get him help. Jason's actions were well beyond anything considered moral acceptability and basically put Dick in an impossible situation without a lot of options (said options were "Arkham or Blackgate," not "Arkham or freedom").
Jason wasn't a victim (either of Dick's supposedly unjustified decision to "put him in Arkham" or of any particularly awful treatment while he was there) and Dick weighed in to the best of his ability in order to make sure Jason was safe while incarcerated and surrounded by people who would genuinely do their best to help him. Any attempt to twist Dick's actions to be otherwise is an active misrepresentation of what canonically happened designed to woobify Jason and villainize Dick for no reason.
I love meta posts like this because it acknowledges that the characterizations were bad!! Listen, the damage Morrison did to both Talia (I will never forgive him for that 💔) and Jason makes my chest heavy. Jason Todd's character could have been a great narrative foil to what both Dick and Bruce's characters were like in that time period (though, I still believe some of Dick's best characterization during his early twenties came from the 80s run. Devin Grayson's run is...tumultuous, to say the least) but I do genuinely feel that after Under The Red Hood the writers just didn't know how to proceed with Jason's character. Judd Winnick had a good foundation (I wouldn't call it great and one of the biggest reasons for that has to do with how Talia's character was handled), but it was basically blasted away by Morrison.
Dick was working with what he's got. He put in every effort to make sure Jarrison™️ got actual help and fanon needs to stop woobifying Jason (and Tim during the whole Bruce is lost in time era) to make Dick the bad guy. Like. Dick's got a temper, remember what he said to Babs about the elevator? If y'all want a 'bad guy' Dick just let him be the sanctimonious bitch he is. It's infinitely more funny, especially in the context of cowling his siblings.
