I fully and firmly believe in the actual, literal, place of hell and that plenty of people end up there. I’ve read some Catholic literature on the subject (Josefa Menedez’ diary, Fr. von Cochem’s discourse on the 4 last things, and St. Alphonsus’ book on preparing for death).
I’ve always ascribed to Hell to being something of the reprobate’s own making. That even if they were offerred a chance to leave, they would refuse, choosing pain and torment over giving up whatever evil they are attached to. The stuff I’ve read, however, seems to point that for souls in hell, they really WANT to get out, see all the bad stuff they’ve done, and would repent, except they could not.
When I read Dante's Inferno, one thing that stood out to me in his "vision" of hell was the complete lack of remorse on the part of the damned: One sinner is even described, despite his torments, as staring in perpetual defiance against God. The only exception I remember to this overall theme of lacking remorse was in the Woods of Suicides. Anyway, it's been awhile since I read it (high school), and I might have just been reading my own interpretations into it.