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Warden Options
The Prison
Rooms
Holding cells
Regular Cells
Solitary
Kitchen
Canteen
Shower Room
Yards
Common Rooms
Libraries
Chapel
Laundry Room
Workshops
Cleaning Cupboards
Staffrooms
Kennels
Armoury
Infirmary
Morgue
Security Room
Execution Chamber
Office
Parole Rooms
Other Rooms
Reception
Mail Room
Shop
Guard Types
Guards
Armed Guards
Dog Handlers
Unhirable Guards
Security Methods
CCTV
 Phone Taps
Entrance and Road Design
Example
Key Factors
The Prisoners
Prisoner Privileges
Prisoner Cash
Security Levels
Traits
Reputations
Gangs
Territory
Intake
Defining Security Levels
Confidential Informants
Suppression
Contraband
Re-Offending Rates
Regimes
Entertainment
Prison Programs
Policy and Punishment
Riots
Utilities
Power
Water
Pipe Traps
Fire Prevention
(Semi-)Automated Systems
Events
Valuation
Failure States
General tips
Starting out
Grants
Design
Supermax
Escape Mode
Collectibles
Achievements
-
Death Row
Death row prisoners
Death row facilities
Death row mechanics
Appeals
Execution outcomes
Additional failure states
Executions
Lockdown
Test Facility
Execution detail and Witnesses
The Green Mile
Execution
Dismissing the staff
Final report
 Warden Options
At the start of your prisons life, before you even place the first foundation or wall, you
will have to choose a warden. This warden will represent your omnipotent character and
comes with a variety of bonuses depending on the warden. There are a total of 6 wardens
to choose from:

The Warden - The default warden with no special bonus or abilities. You do your job
and pick up your paycheck. A simple worker looking to live a simple life.

The Lobbyist - You run the prison for profit and bribe whoever you need to in pursuit
of lower risks. All prisoners arriving at your prison have half the chance of possessing
Violent, Lethal, or Deadly traits. Who wants to house dangerous prisoners anyway? It’s
just unprofitable.

Rita - You’re the boss. you love being the boss. You love the feeling of crushing
prisoners under your autocratic heel. All prisoners with the Stoic and Fearless traits have
the effects of that trait diminished, and all prisoners are suppressed twice as fast.
Remember to feed the office gimp once a week.

J.W. Periwinkle - Years of service in Vietnam led to years of suffering in a POW camp
deep in Vietcong territory. As such, you know a tunnel when you see one. Guard Dogs
have a 50% chance to uncover tunnels they detect. That’s Major Periwinkle to you.

The Pacifier - You might be naturally calm, or simple. Either way you’ve found zen in
the universe and don’t get riled up by anything. Prisoners respond with a 25% drop in
prison temperature.

Saphara Acknova - Corruption is a nasty word. You prefer to call them unlisted
services. Every prisoner caught with contraband is fined a small fee to not disappear
forever, and you make a small profit from reselling the items recovered. All hypothetically
of course.

The Prison

To get your prison started you will need some basics. The 'Basic Detention Center'
being a good list of essentials.
 Rooms

Holding cells

The Holding Cell is a shared cell useful for low funds prisons since it is cheap, and
can hold many prisoners at once. If you are planning to use the holding cell for long-term
occupation adding more than the essential items is highly recommended as it will increase
prisoner satisfaction and reduce the risk of riots. The holding cell has no optimal size as it
varies by prisoner number but one bed and one entertainment item per prisoner is a good
baseline for what to include to avoid rampant rioting and violence. Cells are graded by the
game on a scale between 1 and 10 depending on factors such as their size, recreational
objects within them, or windows to the outside world [More about that later when we cover
prisoner privileges].

Regular Cells

Regular Cells are very similar except they can only house a single prisoner. The
minimum size of a cell is 2X3 [NOTE - The minimum size of 2X3 can be circumvented
using the lawyer bureaucracy research 'Smaller Cells'] and several ​basic (with only the
bare minimum bed and toilet)​ and ​advanced(with two or more entertainment items added
to increase happiness)​designs exist around that size [NOTE - The entertainment items
are almost all interchangeable depending on personal preference]. Larger cells can limit
the amount of prisoners that can be contained within your prison, but extending to a 3X3
space can allow for almost the full range of entertainment items and eliminate the need for
most other entertainment sources such as the Yard and Common Room. ​These Example
designs fill every prisoner need apart from hunger and freedom which cannot be derived
from any cell designs. Prisoners will attempt to escape their cells regularly using tunnels
that originate under the cell toilet. These tunnels grow exponentially quicker when they dig
through large water pipes, or the prisoner has a contraband in the 'tool' category. Tunnels
will take the fastest route outside the prisons outer wall at which point the prisoner or
prisoners whose cells connect to the tunnel will run to freedom. To avoid tunnel escapes
dog patrols can be used to find tunnels locations and cell block searches to find the
entrances [NOTE - as the prisoner will dig along the fastest route large water pipes can be
used to encourage the tunnels direction under dog patrols. Large water pipes should
never extend beyond your prisons outermost walls for any reason as it will make escapes
much easier]. Cell block [or even individual cell searches] are more effective than whole
prison shakedowns as they give the digging prisoner less time to hide the tunnel. Move
guards into the area just before initiating the search for maximum results and don't forget
to dismantle the tunnel using the option within the materials tab.

Solitary

A Solitary cell can be a 1X1 room with no objects, and will function effectively at that.
Using a solitary door will reduce the chance of escape when prisoners get angry. To
reduce the chance of violence think about including toilets, beds, or other entertainment
items in the solitary cells to keep prisoners needs in check. Prisoners are suppressed in
solitary so they may not become violent until after release which will cause you further
problems if not controlled.

Kitchen

After you have somewhere to house your prisoners you will need to keep them alive.
The next step should be the Kitchen to provide food. Again the kitchen has no optimal
size however as a general rule you will need 6 cookers, 3 fridges, and 3 cooks to provide
for 40 prisoners simultaneously. The number of required cooks goes down if you have
prisoner workers helping, however prison workers are limited to a maximum of 20, and
based on the size of the kitchen with one prisoner needing 12 square meters. For ease of
calculations assume 1 - 3 sinks will be enough to clean used trays until you notice
otherwise, because of the variable time-span between meals in regimes the effectiveness
of the sink isn't fixed. As well as providing food the kitchen also produces a large amount
of contraband in the form of knives, forks, and spoons. All these items are made of metal
so a metal detector and guard on the kitchen door will stop most contraband from entering
your prison population. Due to the use of this contraband as a weapon it is best to keep
max sec prisoners and particularly those with the volatile, snitch, or ex-law enforcement
traits out of the kitchens to avoid incidents.
 Canteen

After the food is made you need a Canteen to serve it. Like the kitchen the canteen
size is heavily dependent on the number of prisoners it must serve. Each prisoner should
have a bench and table position at which to eat with a bench able to seat 4 prisoners total
and a table 4 down each side [8 total]. The canteen also needs serving tables with each
table able to hold enough food for 20 prisoners. The canteen is likely to be the largest
congregation of prisoners as it must be timetabled for all of a security level at the same
time with no option to avoid it, this can lead to violence as it forces prisoners to stop
satisfying other needs for the 1 - 2 hour 'EAT' block. For max sec and eventually
supermax legendary prisoners such congregations are unwise so splitting the canteen
into multiple smaller rooms is a good idea. As a general rule no more than 10 volatile
(likely max sec) prisoners should ever be in the same room unless very heavily
suppressed. For lower security prisoners several hundred can be served with a single
canteen with little issue, however the addition of some entertainment items can maintain
order among prisoners who aren't hungry or have finished eating. These prisoners will
otherwise stand around at the entrance slowing other prisoners access, and their needs
may grow to the point of sparking violence. This is particularly a problem around breakfast
when all needs are high anyway.

Shower Room

Shower heads exist to fill the 'hygiene' need of your prisoners and can be placed
anywhere, but the Shower Room is designed specifically to house them and is the muster
point for regime planned 'shower' periods. Depending on your cell layout the shower room
may not be essential to your prison, but every prisoner needs to be able to access a
shower head at some point of their daily regime. Inside the shower room or any room
being used to contain a shower the showerhead must be connected to the water system,
and drains should be placed to prevent flooding in a line around the door, or around the
shower cluster itself. A drain directly below a shower head is useless as they only stop the
spread of water once it is on the ground. As with the canteen regimented shower times
will cause large congregations of prisoners unable to satisfy other needs so making many
smaller showers is recommended in larger prisons. The water makes many electrical
devices inadvisable as water coming into contact with broken electrical items has a
chance to cause fires, but benches are an option to lower boredom of non-showering
inmates. There is no optimal size for a shower room. [NOTE - If you place showers in
other rooms such as individual cells or the cafeteria you do not need to mark them as a
shower area unless you want to set a specific shower time, this can be buggy as
prisoners are not restricted to set showers in the same way as they have specific
canteens and cells]

Yards

Yards are the outdoor area of your prison. It has no size or object needs and can fill
the 'freedom' and 'exercise' need of prisoners without anything but the room designation.
As with all rooms where prisoners are forced against their will fights and riots are
common, however unlike those previously mentioned there is no reason to force prisoners
into a yard unless you need them in a specific place [More about that later when we cover
regime options]. The yard is a good place to build weight benches and phones, to fill the
prisoners exercise and family needs respectively, as well as pool tables which reduce the
'recreation' need. A running track can be built around the edge of the yard using paving
stone or tiles which will encourage prisoners to go jogging, and activity that reduces their
'exercise' need. What many new players don't immediately grasp is that the yard is a large
outdoors area perfect for invisible contraband deliveries. Any outdoor area within 15
meters of your prisons outer wall is vulnerable to such contraband throw-ins so if possible
such areas should be used for indoor or staff-only areas. If the design of your prison
means the yard must be near the edge dog patrols and metal detectors will prevent much
of the contraband from leaving the yard. As a large cheap room the yard can also be used
to fill otherwise useless space or create a barrier between cells and expected tunnel
escape routes depending on your designs.

Common Rooms

The indoors version of the yard is the Common Room. Like the yard almost
everything the common room does can be included in individual cell designs, however
prisoners will only enter the common room during free or work times. If the common room
is designed with some chairs or sofas AA meetings can be arranged using a psychologist
under the 'programs' tab [more about that later]. Otherwise the common room serves as a
communal area for building entertainment items [TV's, weight benches, phones,
bookshelves, or pool tables] to fill prisoner needs.

Libraries

Libraries will fill your prisoners literacy needs by providing books en masse. The room
must be larger than 5X5, and contain at least one library shelf (1X3) and one library
desk(also 1X3). Prisoners can work in the library to keep it working. Having more shelves
allows more prisoners to satisfy their needs in the library, while more desks allow more
prisoners to work there simultaneously. Approximately 3 prisoners can work at each desk
(Note - Prisoners must have the Foundation Education course successfully completed
first). The library spawns metal scissors as contraband so some metal detectors on the
exit are advised.

Chapel

The last room to satisfy prisoners needs is the multi-faith prayer room, or Chapel as it
appears in the rooms tab. The chapel needs to be larger than 6X6 and contain an altar
(3X2), prayer mats (1X1), and pews (4X1). On its own the chapel will satisfy the
spirituality needs of your prisoners however it can also host a 'spiritual guidance' program
that will reduce the danger level of prisoners who attend.

After you can fill prisoner needs and prevent riots you can start to use prison labor.
Working prisoners have a lower re-offending rate and generate money or services for your
prison. To use prison labor you will need to research the 'prison labor' option under the
maintenance tree of the bureaucracy tab. This required both a warden and foreman and
carries a cost of $1,000.

Laundry Room

The Laundry can be run entirely by prison labor and serves to fill all prisoners
'clothing' need. Each prisoner assigned to a laundry requires 4m​2​ to work with a maximum
of 20 prisoners able to work in a single room. This means the maximum optimal size of
the laundry is 80m​2.​ Not many prisons require such a large laundry however as a single
laundry machine (1 tile), two ironing boards (3 tiles each), and four baskets (1 tile each
and mobile) can cater for up to 64 prisoners. A maxed out room measuring the full 80m​2
can provide laundry service for over 250 prisoners.

Workshops

Workshops can perform multiple functions depending on good available, but generally
speaking they generate money from your prison laborers. At a minimum the workshop
must have a saw, a press, and a table. On their own this is because metal plates to be
imported into your prison. The plates will be cut by a prisoner using the saw and then
stamped into licence plates on the press. The metal plates are imported at a price of $10
and the finished licence plates are exported for $20 [each metal plate makes two licence
plates each worth $10]. The table is where the starting and finished products are stored
while waiting for production or to be carried to export areas. If wood is available it will be
cut into planks. Each log is worth $50 each as a raw resource (with around 3 dropped
from each cut tree) but can be cut into 4 wooden planks each worth $50. This makes each
tree worth $600 after refining, a good price considering the forestry cost of a tree is only
$100 plus staff costs. The 12 wooden planks produced from one tree can be further used
to produce superior beds worth $400 each using a carpentry table, although the training
for this is difficult. To use a workshop the prisoner will need to have completed the
'workshop safety induction' program class while use of the carpentry table for bed
production additionally requires completion of the 'carpentry apprenticeship' course. The
workshop produces multiple weapons and tools of the metal and nonmetal varieties. Metal
detectors on the exits are a good idea to prevent the spread of most contraband but a
guard on the door will help catch improvised items. Due to long periods spent in the room
prisoners can make a weapons and attack other prisoners or guards with it without
passing through the detector however so constant vigilance is needed from multiple
guards. Unless you can control them max sec prisoners should not be allowed into
workshops.

Export area's are the other part of the workshop cycle. Finished goods ready for
export are collected there ready to be loaded onto trucks. The movement of good is
facilitated by either prisoners or staff workers depending on access rights to the area.
 Cleaning Cupboards

Cleaning Cupboards allow prisoners to fill the role of janitors. Like the laundry each
prisoner requires 4m​2​ with a maximum of 20 achieved when the room is 80m​2​ large. The
cleaning cupboard does not need or benefit from any buildable object but will import
cleaning products and brooms which become poisons and weapons in the hands of your
inmates. A dog patrol on the exit will prevent poisons from entering your prison and spot
most clubs. Metal detectors would serve no function as none of the contraband is made of
metal.

Libraries are where your prisoners work to sort books for others to read. Prisoners
must have the 'Foundation Education' program completed successfully before they will
work in the library.

Staffrooms

Staffrooms are a fairly essential part of any long-term prison and acts as a resting
place for all of your regular staff [everyone except armed guards and dog handlers]. If
your prison lacks a staff room tired staff will stand still where they get tired and rest at a
much slower rate. The staff room must be 4X4 and contain at least 1 double sofa and one
drink machine. Staff will not use these objects however so having more than the minimum
is not required. The main consideration when placing a staff room should be its ease of
access for the staff, remembering that tired staff are not useful to the prison and move at
a slowed rate compared to active members. Depending on the design of your prison a
single central staff room might be the best solution, or multiple satellite staff rooms. Since
staff will pack together without any risk of rioting the staff room doesn't need to be very
big, a 10X10 room is more than enough to accommodate a 300 guard, 500 staff prison in
my experience although multiple exits will help ease the movement of staff in very small
designs. Staff rooms spawn cigarettes, lighters, and phone contraband so prisoner access
is both unnecessary and harmful to your prison. There is no need to expose prisoners to
this contraband source so unless you have a very good reason to do so, don't.

Kennels

Dog handlers are one of two staff types that don't use the staff room, instead they visit
the Kennels to rest. Kennels only require a 5X5 area and a single dog crate to be
functional, but unlike the staff room it benefits from having more than the minimum as only
one dog can rest in a dog cage at any given time. Dog handlers have fairly short duty
times so expect up to 1/3rd of your dog teams to be resting at any given point. I.E. if you
have 30 dog handlers your kennel should have at least 10 dog cages. The kennels don't
generate contraband so there is no reason to keep prisoners out unlike the staff room,
however with no reason to let them in either its a matter of your prisons design. Again
consider how long it will take your dog handlers to return to the kennel when tired before
you place the kennels.

Armoury

The last type of staff rest room is used for armed guards only. The Armory requires a
single table, a single gun rack, and guard lockers. The room is functional with just one of
each however only one armed guard can be hired for each guard locker built. The table
and rack combination takes up a total of 6m​2​ and each guard locker a single 1m​2​ square
so even a small 5X5 room the same size as a minimum kennel can support 19 armed
guards. It is however a good idea to leave a single square empty for guards to stand in as
the game can become buggy if the room is entirely filled with guard lockers, this lowers
the 5X5 room to 18 armed guards. The armoury spawns some of the worst contraband in
the game including shotguns, pistols, and tazers. As such it is a prime target for rioting
prisoners and access should be heavily restricted using a solitary door and armed guards
during times of violence.

(For more information about the different types of guards skip ahead to the
appropriate section)

Infirmary

After fights, survived shankings, overzealous guards, overdoses, or poisonings

prisoners will be injured. At this time they must be treated by a doctor who works out of
the Infirmary. Conscious prisoners will take themselves to the infirmary occasionally,
usually with a guard escort, although most of the time you will need to manually send a
doctor within 5 meters of the prisoner to prompt the healing process. Unconscious
prisoners will be taken to a bed in the infirmary by a guard. Injured guards and other staff
will also visit the infirmary on their own accord. Since prisoners are unreliable when it
comes to seeking treatment it can be a good idea to place the infirmary near your solitary
cells so doctors will see and treat wounded prisoners taken to solitary. Like many rooms
the size of the infirmary scales with the amount of prisoners expected to use it, and so is
heavily dependent on your prisons ability to maintain prisoners needs and avoid violence.
It requires only a medical bed to operate with one prisoner able to occupy each bed at a
time, however 10 beds are recommended for most prisons as it allows a full class to enroll
in the 'Pharmacological Treatment of Drug Addiction' program [more about programs
later] which reduces prisoners 'Drug' need. 10 medical beds should also be enough to
keep a population of 300+ prisoners healthy in a well-run prison, however you can build
more should you have a violence or addiction problem. The infirmary spawns several
kinds of contraband including drugs and scissors so a dog handler and metal detector
should be included on all doors into the infirmary. A guard presence inside the infirmary is
also highly recommended as recovered prisoners are often as violent as when they lost
consciousness so will start damaging objects and attacking others as soon as they're
healed. As doctors are the only way to recover unconscious staff and prisoners before
they die it is best to protect them well during riots. Solitary doors on the entrance will slow
riots entry into the infirmary and gives you a chance to route guards into the area.

Morgue

If a prisoner dies the infirmary can't do anything for them, but the Morgue is ready to
help. At current the morgue's only function is to store dead bodies until a hearse can pick
them up. Each body needs a morgue slab to rest upon and the bodies are transported by
guards. The morgue does not spawn any contraband on its own but be aware that staff
bodies in the morgue retain all their items including keys, tazers, shotguns, and others. As
such it is worth keeping prisoners out of the morgue [NOTE - These items are also on
bodies in the general population, if a guard or other staff member dies or is rendered
unconscious search every prisoner for his keys and weapons immediately]. Two to three
slabs should be enough to cater for a large prison, and during riots where more than a
couple of prisoners may die bodies may still be loaded directly into hearses.
 Security Room

The Security Room again serves no intrinsic purpose but several objects can be
placed within it to reduce the chance of prisoner disobedience sending people to the
infirmary or morgue. The basic room requires the same as a regular office, one chair, one
office desk, and one filing cabinet. With only that the room will act as a congregation point
for guards but little more, the real strength of the room is its ability to house CCTV and
Phone Tap monitors. It is also the location confidential informants (CI's) will report to when
activated. CI's can generally be trusted to not steal everything from the security room and
a full explanation of CI's role can be found in another part of this guide. Be aware that the
security room spawns door keys as well as some other contraband. Prisoners should be
kept out of the room at all times. If fitted with CCTV or phone tap equipment it will become
a prime target during riots so solitary doors are advised.

(For more information about the different security methods skip ahead to the
appropriate section)

Execution Chamber

The Execution chamber needs only a 2X2 electric chair. For a full account of the
execution and death row mechanics see the ‘Death Row’ section at the bottom of this
guide. Since the developers made executions and death row inmates an entirely
avoidable part of the game it seemed only right to do the same in the guide.

Office

The last room to be mentioned in this guide is the standard Office. Offices are the
base for wardens, accountants, foreman, security chiefs, lawyers, and psychologists and
allow for development of the bureaucracy research tree. With the exception of
psychologists and foreman none of these staff need to ever enter the actual prison so
their offices can be safely positioned outside the wall to keep the expensive and easily
killed staff away from possible danger. The office also spawns some low level contraband
including cigarettes, lighters, alcohol, and unregistered phones. A dog patrol and metal
detector are advised where prisoners are allowed into offices. As for the exceptions the
foreman is expected to inspect your prisons workshops regularly and will visit them to do
so in person. Psychologists serve a dual function with the psychologists walking to
common rooms for AA meetings as part of the prisoners program, or prisoners can be
sent to the psychologist's office for Behavioral Therapy sessions. You will need at least 4
offices to research everything.

Parole Rooms

Parole Rooms exist as a specialist type of office. The function it must be visitable by
the Inmate, the Inmate's Lawyer, and a Parole Officer the latter two of which will spawn on
the road like a visitor. The parole room needs only a visitors table and be larger than 5X5.
Prisoners will use the parole room when they reach 50% and 75% of their sentence and
may be released based upon their chance to re-offend. You can change the leniency of
the parole board in the 'policy' tab at any time. The parole room will only function if the
'Parole Hearing' program is active.

Prisoners released who do not re-offend grand an instant payout of $3,000. Prisoners
may become angry if they are denied parole so have a guard in the room to protect your
staff.

Other Rooms

As well as all the indoors rooms Deliveries, Garbage, and Storage also need to be
taken into account during prison design. Deliveries are quite simply where everything
enters your prison and where the trucks unload goods including food and construction
equipment, prisoners, and anything else. Garbage is the reverse and where your prisons
rubbish is stored while waiting to be exported via truck. Both of these rooms should be
placed near to the road so as to avoid bottlenecks and, as they can contain random
contraband [Note- mostly tools with some narcotics and luxury items] in the imported
goods as well as easy access to the road area they should not be accessible for
prisoners. Storage areas should be treated the same way but can be placed further from
the road. Items will spawn in the storage area before being delivered via truck if there is
free space, and disassembled items will be taken to the storage area for…. well….
storage.
 Reception

On top of the standard deliveries room you can build a purpose built reception room
to hold newly arrived inmates. The reception requires a desk, a table, and a chair to
operate and has no size restrictions. If built all new prisoners will be taken to the reception
instead of deliveries zones and left until a guard is free to strip search them. This will stop
contraband from entering the prison with new arrivals but is very labor intensive due to the
individual searches required.

As well as searching new prisoners the reception will also distribute fresh uniforms
and as such needs to be serviced by a laundry.

Mail Room

Mail rooms work next to Receptions to intake unsorted mail. The room must contain
sorting tables which will determine the room's capacity to hold unsorted mail and regular
tables which will determine the capacity to hold mail satchels. Both items are imported
each day at 6am on a roughly 1:1 ratio and excess unsorted mail can be stored on the
regular tables if there are no free sorting tables. Like the library the sorting process relies
on prison labor and takes a fairly long time to sort each mail sack, however guards are
capable of distributing sorted mail throughout the prison using the supplied mail satchels.
The guard must enter each cell individually so it is a time intensive process and all mail
should be screen for contraband using dogs and/or metal detectors, however a supply of
mail will help fill a prisoner's family, comfort, and recreation needs and can be a powerful
unrest suppression tool.

Shop

The shop functions with the prisoner cash system [More about that later when we
work and prisoner cash] to provide prisoner with extra items in return for a small amount
of cash. The room requires a 4x4 indoor space with shop shelving to store sellable items.
It also requires a shop table to unpack items on, and a shop front to actually sell the items
though as prisoners will not enter the shop unless directed to work there. [Note - The shop
front items is the only non-door item in-game which is positioned within a wall.]
The shop is able to sell items to satisfy most prisoner needs and so may help struggling
prisons prevent rioting, however it is also a potent source of contraband so precautions
are required to prevent it from being more trouble that is solves.

Guard Types

Now we know the requirements of each guard type a full examination of their abilities
is needed.

Guards

Guards are your grunt labor able or manage your prisoners and put down simple
violence. They also perform searches, open doors, and generally keep the peace. As a
guard unit they see through the fog of war if you have it enabled. There are many theories
and rules around guard numbers but from my experience you will want at least a single
guard assigned to each room at all times if you have fog of war turned on, working on a
rough assumption that 10 - 15% of your guards will be resting at any given time. You also
need several guards free to perform other daily functions (about 1 free guard for every 10
prisoners generally works okay). Regular guards have multiple upgrade options through
the bureaucracy tab that require the chief of security and 'security' upgrade to access.
Body armour costs $1000 and makes all guards 50% more resistant to damage at the
cost of 30% movement speed, it also costs $100 for each guard that is upgraded with the
armour after research and is automatically applied to all guards with no way to keep a
guard un-armoured. Guards can also be upgraded with the tazer rollout program which
costs $5000. After research guards can take a Guard Tazer Certification class in a
developed classroom, upon passing the class they must visit an armory to retrieve their
new tazer at a cost of $400 each. These upgrades are very useful for putting down small
disturbances with less chance of serious injury or death. The tazer can fire only once per
hour and flashes when it it recharging. All guards are armed with a club to subdue
prisoners when not equipped with a functional tazer, however they are very susceptible to
getting mobbed as most prisons should have more prisoners than guards.
 Armed Guards

The upgraded form of the regular guard is the Armed Guard. Armed guards carry
shotguns capable of instantly killing violent prisoners and ending riots in the area they
shoot but lose the ability to perform any other guard duties. Armed guards are the best
way of suppressing high danger inmates as they suppress every prisoner within a large
radius of them at all times. Be careful however as armed guards add to the danger level of
all prisoners in your prison so any inmates not suppressed by their presence are more
likely to riot. Armed guards can be upgraded with body armour like regular guards,
however they do not need to attend a class to equip tazers needing only a separate
'Tazers' research. This is a good idea as without a tazer the armed guards are very likely
to kill prisoners who could be better controlled. During riots armed guards will shout
warnings and may encourage prisoners to surrender peacefully, however almost all
prisoners in an area will surrender once they open fire. There are also dangers and
downsides to suppression, but more about that later.

Dog Handlers

Lastly Dog Patrols act as mobile contraband detectors. The dog is able to detect any
contraband with the tag 'smelly' as well as tunnels directly below them. The dog has a
smell range of 3m in any direction and will automatically smell any object to enter that
radius while on patrol. While a dog is smelling a brown circle will appear over the object,
and if anything is detected the dog handler will search the item or prisoner. As this takes
the dog off its patrol multiple dogs should be assigned to places where multiple prisoners
can be expected to smuggle smelly contraband within short time periods (infirmaries,
visitation, cleaning cupboards, etc). Dog's will also detect tunnel digging directly below
their 3m smell radius and indicate it with a tunnel warning and a yellow flag. This can
indicate where a cell search may find the entrance to the tunnel but will not stop the
tunnels progress without a cell search. Both tunnel and contraband detections are open to
false positives so be aware you might be chasing ghosts.

Unhirable Guards

An honorable mention should go to Riot Guards who act as a melee focused version
of the armed guard. They have superior armour and are able to take on many times their
number in prisoners. Riot guards are called in via the emergencies tab at a cost of $100
and increase the danger of all prisoners in the same way as armed guards.

If you enter the failure state for too many continuous riots National Guard guards will
arrive wielding powerful assault rifles. They will quickly take over the prison and kill any
prisoner who doesn't surrender. If they arrive you have lost the game and lose all control
of the prison.

Security Methods

CCTV

CCTV monitors can connect to up to 8 cameras at a time, switching between active

cameras when more than 8 are connected and a guard is stationed on the console. Each
camera has a line of sight extending 13 meters from the camera and rotating about 70* to
both sides of their deployment direction. Once you have built a CCTV terminal and
camera you must connect the monitor to the camera, connecting the camera to the
monitor will not work. A free guard will be dispatched if the camera picks up an incident,
but for high-incident areas a guard should already be stationed nearby to respond quickly.
CCTV camera's without nearby free guards will achieve little. [NOTE - When placing a
CCTV camera the front is marked with a larger black square than the backs black dot, and
has an angle with the top protruding further than the bottom compared to the back which
is comparatively flat down the majority of its side.]

Phone Taps

Phone Taps are a method of listening in on phone lines with the intention of finding
contraband locations within your prison. Each phone tap can monitor a single phone at a
time when manned with a guard but as phones aren't in constant use several phones can
be connected to a single tap without reducing their efficiency. Contraband found by phone
taps is seen in the 'informant' tab of the 'intelligence' window. As with CCTV you must
connect the monitor to the phone, not the other way around.
Entrance and Road Design

Example
An example prison entrance:

Regular View

Permissions view
 [Note - a storage zone can be added above the export room and across the road from
the deliveries area] shows one of many ways to create a secure air-locked entrance with a
15 meter road clearance to prevent contraband throw-ins. In this design the middle of the
large map has been marked with a 2-thick plan line seen extending from the 2-wide path.
This lines up with the two blocks at the top of the default delivery zone and knowing that
will help you line up your design with the edge of the standard map. In this design the
road adjacent area is set to staff-only, however this limits the export zone [mentioned in
part 2 of this guide] to only being fillable by staff workers and not prisoners. Due to the
double road gates and accompanying double wall prisoners could be trusted in this design
so long as they are supervised. The gap between each set of gates should be over 4
meters so the first gate can close behind a truck before the second one is opened. It
should be noted that this design is very secure and features the ability to extend into a
double perimeter wall with a 15 meter anti-contraband gap making it close to the most
secure entrance achievable. Any entrance with 2 monitored doors or gates between the
prisoners and the open road can be deemed secure however and a single perimeter
fence works just as well in designs where the exterior 15 meter area is considered indoors
or staff only. [Note - This design places a wall in the last free-build square before the edge
of the map. Prisoners digging under the road to escape will produce a tunnel on the edge
square and are impossible to destroy without buying a land extension. All other tunnel
squares can still be destroyed as normal however.]

Key Factors

When designing an entrance several key things should be considered. To put the in a
simple list: How close will prisoners get to the road and/or the open edge of the map to
escape? [if it is less than 2 secure and monitored doors then you may have problems],
Can items or contraband enter the prison without being checked [Metal detectors and dog
patrols are useful here.], and perhaps most importantly how will the entrance cope with
the quantity of trucks and visitors it is expected to handle while remaining difficult to
escape [Easy mistakes involve placing road gates too close together so both must be
open simultaneously, or forgetting to make the space between gates staff-only]. Aside
from that all design is and should be up to you. The game is all about creativity so don't
get bogged down thinking that example is either the ​only​ or ​best s​ olution. It is neither.

The standard 5X8 delivery and garbage zones provided at the start of every game are
more than adequate to sustain the daily operations of even very large 1000+ prisoner
prisons, however the delivery zone can quickly become saturated during expansions and
is only able to contain 40 new items at a time. Assuming the fittings for a standard cell
includes 1 door, 1 bed, and 1 toilet this is only enough room for 13 new cells. Once
entertainment items are added this becomes even less. During these expansions consider
building a storage area closer to the construction area before ordering the parts so they
will spawn inside the prison. This reduces the amount of items which must pass through
the entrance and prevents the road becoming blocked by loaded trucks.

Storage zones are also where deconstructed or deleted items are sent. This means
that you do not recuperate the costs of dismantled or cancelled items, however if you
place an identical object it will cost nothing and the stored object will be used by workers.
The number of each object you have in storage is easily readable in the ordering tab on
the bottom half of the object image.

The Prisoners

Prisoners are the lifeblood of your prisons. They are what make you money and what
will burn you to the ground. The properly contain them it's important to know how they
operate and what you can do to manipulate them.

Prisoner Privileges

While inside your prison prisoners are assigned cells automatically. The cell assigned
to an individual prisoner is determined by the prison cells quality rating and the prisoners
privilege rating. The cells rating is determined by the factors given above (size, objects,
view, etc...) while the prisoners privilege is determined by the time since their last incident.
The long a prisoner lives without causing an incident the better the cell they deserve up
until the limit at quality 10.
 Prisoners who enter your prison new have a prisoner privilege of 3 fixed for the first
three days as this number allows them to move straight into the lowest quality individual
cells if such cells are free. Prisoners who do cause incidents have their privilege reset to
‘0’ and must move into holding cells or extremely basic individual cells until they can
regain some privilege.

The check a cells privilege you can enter the Room Quality view through the
appropriate button in the logistics tab. This will show you two numbers for each cell with
the left number representing the privilege demand of the occupying prisoner, and the right
number showing that cells quality rating. Guards will move prisoners to appropriate cells
as needed however prisoners will not be moved into cells too different from their deserved
quality [Note - At current a prisoner may only occupy a cell two ranks higher than their
privilege meaning rank 2 cells are required to house offending inmates immediately] and
may be moved back to holding cells if they cause an incident and appropriate quality cell
is not available.

While living in cells which are better than your prisons average prisoners will be less
likely to cause incidents, while the reverse is true for those living in cells worse than the
prisons average.

Prisoner Cash

As well as gaining cell privilege for good behaviour prisoners will be rewarded with
cash in exchange for work. If your prison has a functional shop this will incentivise some
reform programs and make prisoners more likely to voluntarily apply, and pass, those
courses.

Prisoners are paid 50 cents ($0.50) per hour of work completed and also gain small
amounts of money from relatives during visitation. They can use this money to buy items
in the shop for $5 each.

Due to the fact prisoners are paid by the hour instead of useful work done oversized
and overpopulated work rooms may be attractive prospects. They will grant the prison
warden better control over prisoner income and thus prisoner access to shop items.
 The reverse side of this prisoner cash system is its interaction with gangs which can
be read about in the gangs section.

Security Levels

Security Levels are the most obvious differentiation but the security level of an
imported prisoner actually tells you very little. The security level does however affect the
payment received for each prisoner.

Minimum security - $300

Medium security - $500

Maximum security - $1000
Death Row - ​$2500
All prisoners pay a fixed $150 per day incarcerated.

Traits

The real information comes in the form of a prisoner's traits and reputations. Traits
first:

Clever - Trait allows a prisoner to dig out of your prison. Only possessed by around
20% of the prison population.

Controlling - No known effect on prisoner behavior.

Destructive - Trait makes prisoners more likely to cause physical damage to your
prison when needs are not met.

Fraud - No known effect on prisoner behavior.

Lethal - Trait makes prisoners more likely to kill others either in direct stabbings or by
beating them to death.

Narcotics - Trait makes prisoners 'drug' need greater, causing them to seek out
narcotics more vigorously and causing more severe unhappiness/agitation if narcotics are
not available.

Petty - Trait makes a prisoner more likely to engage in petty and non-violent crimes
within your prison. Contraband being the main form.
 RisksLife - Trait makes prisoners more likely to attempt escape and less likely to
surrender.

Sexual - No known effect on prisoner behavior.

Theft - Trait makes prisoners more likely to steal contraband if needs are not met.

Vehicular - No known effect on prisoner behavior.

Violent - Trait makes prisoners more likely to instigate or join riots, fights, or other
physical assaults. [Note - different to 'lethal' in that the prisoner's goal is to have a fight,
not to kill. Most victims should be rendered unconscious and wounded unless combined
with another trait or reputation.]

Traits are not directly visible in-game however there are ways to see them in the save
games text file. Traits are associated with some crimes however. Most of these are
self-explanatory but ones to watch are IndieVideoGamePiracy, VideoGamePiracy,
MoneyLaundering, InsiderTrading, FalseAccounting, and CounterfeightingCurrency as
they require the trait 'clever' and so make that prisoner an increased escape risk [Note -
these crimes ​require​ the clever trait and make the prisoner a guaranteed escape risk, but
all prisoners can possess the clever trait regardless of their crime] [Note - It has been
suggested that prisoners may be innocent of their crimes so they might not always give an
accurate representation].

Reputations

The in-game helpful versions of traits are called Reputations but don't show as much
information.

COP KILLER makes the prisoner a target for guards. They are much more likely to be
beaten to death when subdued for disobedience. They generally don't live long but may
have their chances improved by detention in a protected wing with fewer guards and less
reasons to become involved in an incident.

DEADLY makes the prisoner more lethal in combat. They can often kill in 1 hit and so
should be treated with great care so as to avoid them being able to kill a rooms guards
and instigate a riot. If paired with 'volatile' set the prisoner to max sec or supermax
immediately.
 EX LAW ENFORCEMENT makes the prisoner a target for other prisoners. They are
much more likely to be attacked and killed by other prisoners for no reason. Place in
protective custody whenever possible or they don't live long in the general population.

FEARLESS makes the prisoner less easily intimidated. They are less likely to
surrender during riots or after incidents. Sometimes they must be beaten to death in order
to be subdued unless tazers are available to take them down.

INSTIGATOR makes the prisoner able to start trouble indirectly, prompting other
prisoners to start incidents. As a major riot risk if allowed to spark multiple other incidents
simultaneously you may want to keep them subdued, or not want to risk taking them to
high sec.

QUICK makes the prisoner faster. It's that simple. When they run they will outpace
your guards but that's all.

SKILLED makes the prisoner able to disarm guards and steal their weapons without
having to knock them unconscious first.

SNITCH makes the prisoner a target for attack the same as ex-law enforcement.
Move them to protective as soon as possible or they will die.

STOICAL makes the prisoner impossible to suppress in solitary confinement. They

are thus more likely to attempt to escape solitary cells when their needs fill up in the small
uninteresting room. They are also harder to reform and so retain the compulsion to
commit crimes and incidents throughout their sentence.

TOUGH makes the prisoner tougher. They can withstand tazers and gain protection
against physical damage and are thus harder to subdue.

VOLATILE makes the prisoner liable to start violent incidents for no reason.
Depending on your prisons supply of max sec cells you may want to set all volatile
prisoners to max sec so they don't start fights in general population.

All these traits can be altered by Modifier Words in them such as 'Extremely' and
'Very'. These just signify a higher form of the reputation and make the effect more
pronounced. Not all reputations can be modified like this however.
 Gangs

Within your prison the prisoners will organize themselves into various gangs if you
have the appropriate option turned on in the difficulty menu. These semi-unified prisoners
can become a problem as they are far less likely to seek reform and more likely to
become involved in violent altercations. Gang members are more likely at higher security
levels and arrive already members of the gang. Gang members are visually identifiable by
full body tattoos which are unique to each gang as well as though the gang tab in the
intelligence menu. The gang menu will also track each individual gangs current member
count and kill total to evaluate the most problematic gangs.

Within each gang members will attempt to assist each other if one becomes involved
in a fight against either another prisoner or prison guards. This can quickly lead to lone
guards becoming mobbed by gangs if unsupported or cause riots if a fight breaks out
between gangs as both sides will flock to join the fight.

To assist the gang members in their fights each member is more likely to steal
contraband such as weapons and more likely to carry those weapons rather than hide
them for later use. Gang members will avoid all voluntary reform programs and voluntary
work shifts and so are difficult to reform. As well as the effect of this refusal to work on
reform it also means that gang members are less likely to have spare cash to buy store
items. This can lead to unhappiness if they are unable to fulfill needs elsewhere and
makes even non-volatile gang members more likely to start a fight, however gang
members have an alternative source of income through intimidation and protection
schemes if they own an area of territory [More about that later when we cover gang
territory mechanics].

At the top end of a gang's structure are Gang Leaders. These are random legendary
prisoners who will take over all members of their gang upon entering the prison and
dictate that gangs actions from then on. Initially this involves promoting Gang Lieutenants
(up to a about of 1 lieutenant per 10 gang members) who will interact with the territory
mechanics (again, more on that later) as well as initiating non-gang members into the
gang to grow their strength. Gang Leaders also affect the mood of all other gang
members with punishments such as solitary or lockdown causing other gang members to
become aggravated. Similarly, if a Gang Leader dies inside your prison all active gang
members will riot.

Gang Lieutenants and Leaders will avoid trouble at all costs.

Territory

As well as causing general trouble prisoner Gangs will attempt to cut out a place for
themselves inside your prison. This involves capturing and running territories that can be
single rooms or entire cell wings depending on your prisons design. All territories, claimed
and potential, are shown in the gang view map. To capture a territory the gang must have
a leadership hierarchy that includes at least one Lieutenant who will gather a group of
lower gang member to make a ‘play’, and have sufficient numbers of gang members able
to access the territory to take the area from other gangs. During this initial time the gang
members will gather around the acting lieutenant before moving into the territory. At this
stage the gang members (NOTE - not the lieutenant. He will return to his cell to stay out of
immediate trouble) remove their shirts to show their gang tattoos as an immediate sign
they are making a play.

Inside the territory the gang members will invite a fight from a rival gang, but take no
action against non-gang members or guards. The territory will be taken by the gang after
around 1 hour if no other gangs fight back, in which case the territory will remain
unowned.

All territory plays will fail if the number of guards within a territory is more than the
number of prisoner required to take it as this will mean the guards ‘own’ the territory in an
unclaimed limbo.

Once the territory is taken it will becomes owned by the gang. This means that
members of other gangs will not enter that territory for fear of being beaten, and non-gang
members must pay tribute/protection to the gang in order to stay within the territory and
use associated items to fill their needs (This extortion is worth roughly $1 per prisoner per
hour). The owning gang will continue to show their force within the territory to maintain
control by flooding the area with gang members.
 Additionally, territories owned by gangs cannot be rezones, dezoned, deconstructed,
constructed, or otherwise controlled by the warden.

There are two ways a controlled territory will be lost for a gang. The first involves
losing it to another rival gang. These plays are initiated when an attacking gang can
significantly outnumber a defending gang's territory maintenance plays. During these
plays members of the attacking gang will enter the territory by force, beating any
defending gang members who enter the area. During this time the attacking gang will
control themselves to avoid being removed by the guards. This means that only one or
two attacking members will initiate violent actions against each defender.

Defending gangs may withdraw completely if sufficiently outnumbered, as will be the

case in most successful plays, but if numbers are even the play may spark widespread
violence.

The second way a gang may lose its territory is by Forced Eviction. This involves
using security guards to evict the gang members. To begin the process of evicting a gang
from an area press the ‘Eviction’ button in the gang view. This will immediately make all
gang members inside the territory hostile and encourage gang members from outside the
territory to enter the zone as lieutenants made plays to defend the zone. The get around
some of this initial violence you should have guards placed in or around the territory prior
to starting the eviction process [Note - If you move a large number of guards into a held
territory prior to the eviction process the defending gang will make a preemptive play to
defend by moving gang members into the territory]. When taking a territory you are still
vulnerable to the ‘prisoner death’ failure state.

If the eviction button is left ‘on’ for 24hours and the defending gang is unable to make
a successful defensive play the territory is reset to ‘unclaimed’. Once again, the gangs
play will be proportional to the opposing force.

During plays and mass-punishments gangs are unable to field their full member base
at will. This provides easier opportunities for evictions by your guards or other gangs.
 Intake

The security status or risk of the prisoners you import will drastically change their
likelihood of possessing the more negative traits and reputations, and can even give them
multiple reputations. Prisoners with many modified traits are called Legendary Prisoners
and will usually have 'Extremely Volatile' and 'Very Deadly' as a minimum. Should you
choose to keep them alive be aware that combination is a great way to lose guards since
the prisoner will attack at random times and kill in the first hit. Legendary prisoners can
only be found among high security inmates and should be treated as supermax.

You can select how many prisoners arrive each day using a slider in the ‘prisoners’
tab of the Reports menu. These prisoners can be specified by security rating using sliders
at the top of the tab.

All prisoners arrive from a perpetual pool of possible prisoners limiting the amount
that can be taken in at once. This pool will grow constantly while not being emptied and
gains prisoners in relation to the current ratios selected. These ratios are shared between
prison and pool intake so as to ensure backlogs of unwanted prisoners are minimal.

Defining Security Levels

Protective and supermax prisoners must be player-defined and cannot be imported

though the prisoners tab. To change a prisoner's security level use the drop down box in
their character biography page after manually selecting them. Options for targeted manual
searches, and punishments are also found on this page.

Confidential Informants

To start with only half your incoming prisoners will show their reputations in the
'character' tab of their sheet or the 'informant' view. Confidential Informants are a way of
increasing that. To recruit a CI you must first send them to solitary. While there
recruit-able CI's will be marked with a yellow ring when looking in the 'informant' tab of the
'Intelligence' window. If a prisoner has that option you recruit them in the 'information' tab
of their individual character sheet. All information they find in your prison will be shown in
that informant view.

CI's can also find contraband, however they must be activated to do this. To activate
an informant select 'activate' from the drop-down box next to their name in the informant
view and wait. They will make their way to the security office and raise a little suspicion in
the process. Once at the security room the CI will tell you everything they know and it will
update the map accordingly. When using informants to prevent contraband flow it is wise
to release the CI before taking action as to do otherwise increases their suspicion levels.
If the suspicion level remains too high for too long, or reaches an undefined and
constantly changing level, the CI will have his cover blown. This will make them a prime
target for attack and they should be moved to protected status immediately to avoid
death. The longer a prisoner is in the security room the more suspicious others will
become.

Suppression

Work And Education is a fairly major part of the prison experience. Prisoners will work
or learn during specified hours according to the regime [more about that in the next part]
but they do have some basic requirements. The main requirement being that prisoners
will not enroll in voluntary classes such as workshop tutorials or classroom educations
when suppressed. Suppression also makes the prisoner walk slower so even those
programs they are signed up for are much more likely to be failed as the prisoner will miss
most of the actual teaching, or can't pay attention to the class [joke about school goes
here]. Suppression is gained by the presence of armed guards or solitary confinement,
dog handlers and regular guards do not contribute to suppression.

Contraband

Contraband is something this guide has mentioned a lot. To gain a full understanding
of contraband it must be thought of as Schrodinger's Shank. When prisoners are in a
room which spawns contraband the game runs several checks. First it checks the
prisoners needs and checks if a contraband item available would fill one of those needs,
next it checks suppression status, and finally it runs an RNG. This means there are many
random parts of the contraband equation. The RNG is beyond largely player control but
seems to be affected by the amount of contraband to have enter the room via imported
items in some cases. A happy prisoner won't steal nearly as much so use of
entertainment items, free time, and even some programs can manage contraband levels
where dogs patrols and metal detectors seem to be failing.

Contraband can be exchanged between prisoners in public spaces such as the yard
or common room for cash. The price of contraband on this black market is determined by
the supply:demand ratio.

Re-Offending Rates
When prisoners enter your prison they are given a reoffending rate based on their
security level and crime. This rate is important for your prisons grading, and parole
options as well as being a general indicator of a prisoner's tendency towards violence
within your prison.
A prisoners re-offending rate is determined by their ‘enjoyment’ of their time in prison
and is measured in 4 factors.

Punishments like solitary or lockdown decrease reoffending rate.

Reform programs decrease the reoffending rate if passed successfully. Education

schemes and work options factor into this as well as drug and alcohol rehab.

Prisoners held in well secured prisons are less likely to reoffend, likely due to the
decreased chance of escape should they return. This is based on prisoner escapes,
deaths, and contraband rather than the security presence directly.

Prisoners with good health satisfaction are also less likely to reoffend.

Fast ways to reduce your prisons average reoffending rate include prolonging
punishments after altercations using the ‘policy’ tab. This may also require changes to
your solitary block to cope with the longer punishments to avoid release riots.

Extra work programs or reduced suppression to encourage prisoners into voluntary

programs might also work. This has the added bonus of earning funds through prison
labor if set up properly.

Prison security and prisoner health are affected by more factors and so may be easier
or much harder to change, depending on your prison.
 As well as determining your prisons grade prisoners re-offending rate also affects a
prisoner's likelihood of causing incidents with the prisons mean average rate representing
the equilibrium point between prisoners more likely to cause incidents vs those less likely
to cause them. New prisoners will likely have a higher re-offending rate unless your prison
is terrible in terms of security, punishment, and reform programmes so they will likely be
the main source of incidents. You can begin to control these new prisoners by exploiting
the prisoner privilege mechanic that will initially separate out prisoners who are new to the
prison (with ratings of 3) or who have recently caused incidents. These under-privileged
prisoners should be the target for reform or punishment programs and may also be a
hotspot for contraband and tunnel digging activities.

Regimes

When building a Regime there are many considerations and most of them will depend
on your prison design. The only prisoners who will not follow a custom regime are those in
solitary, lockdown, or death row (who are always on lockdown by default).

Regimented time slot : Sleep

Rooms involved : Cell / Holding cell

Recommended time(s) : All night. Prisoners require only 6 hours sleep. [Note -
Nocturnal prisons are impossible as prisoners will not sleep in the day.]

Other things to consider : Prisoners will continue to sleep during free time if it is
arranged directly after the sleep period ends. Sleep periods will be the equivalent of
lockdown for prisoners who are not tired. During the sleep time is when prisoners will dig
tunnels, so watch for tired prisoners since they are the ones who stayed up all night
digging.

Regimented time slot : Eat

Rooms involved : Canteen

 Recommended time(s) : At least twice daily, three times maximum. Prisoners who go
to bed hungry will be difficult to control when they wake up so make sure at least one
feeding is shortly before they sleep.

Other things to consider : During their time in the canteen prisoners who aren't hungry
will become agitated. Consider adding toilets, showers and entertainment items to the
canteen to keep them satisfied.

Regimented time slot : Shower

Rooms involved : Shower room

Recommended time(s) : As with the feeding need prisoners who don't shower before
bed will be difficult in the morning. This makes shower times late in the day more useful if
your prisoners have access to showers during the days freetime to keep their needs down
themselves. If showers are provided in your cells or another room that isn't designated as
showers do not use the regime time. Prisoners will use the free showers as they have
access.

Other things to consider : During their time in the shower prisoners who aren't feeling
dirty will become agitated. Consider adding toilets and benches to the shower room to
keep them satisfied.

Regimented time slot : Yard

Rooms involved : Yard

Recommended time(s) : Fits around other regime points as a break. Whenever you
have free time.

Other things to consider : Yard time is inferior to freetime unless you want/need all
your prisoners in one place for another reason. If your prisoners have a set yard time
make sure the yard design can fill all needs with toilets, benches, and a full range of
entertainment items.

Regimented time slot : Freetime

Rooms involved : All

 Recommended time(s) : Fits around other regime blocks to rest your prisoners and fill
their individual needs.

Other things to consider : Freetime will let all your prisoners deal with their individual
needs and they will travel around their accessible parts of the prison to fill those needs.
The only activities they will not fill are eating, and work.

Regimented time slot : Work

Rooms involved : Classrooms, Workshops, Cleaning cupboards, Laundry, kitchen

Recommended time(s) : Depending on the programs you have active a minimum time
may be required to complete courses. The longest of these is a single 3-hour block.

Other things to consider : Prisoners who do not have jobs or programs to attend will
treat work time as freetime.

(For more information about work programs skip ahead to the appropriate section)
-

Regimented time slot : Lockdown

Rooms involved : Cells / Holding cells

Recommended time(s) : Dependent on your prisoners sec levels. Lockdown should

be mostly used for max and supermax prisoners too dangerous to grant freetime as it will
increase suppression and agitation.

Other things to consider : While locked in their rooms prisoners will not dig tunnels.

Entertainment

Now that's done let's go back and define those entertainment items.

The Bookshelf lowers a prisoner's Recreation need. [Note - Non functional]

The Weight Bench lowers a prisoner's Exercise need.

The Phone Booth lowers a prisoner's Family need.

The Pool Table lowers a prisoner's Recreation need.

The TV lowers a prisoner's Comfort and Recreation Needs.

 The Sofas and Benches lower a prisoner's Comfort Need.

Library Shelf lower a prisoner's Literacy Need

Prayer Mat / Pews lower a prisoner's Spiritual Need

Radios lower a prisoner's Recreation need

If you have a problem with any need getting too high during regimented time slots
simply add the appropriate item to the room. All prisoner needs (Except sleep, drugs, and
alcohol) should be fill-able by your prisoners at all times, with no single (apart from hunger
and sleep) need allowed to grow for more than 1 hour.

Prison Programs

For the 'work' slot to work properly your prisoners will need somewhere to, well, work.
After you unlock 'Prison Labor' under the foreman's section of the bureaucracy tree you
can order prisoners to work in certain rooms. This is done with the 'Logistics' tab and
shows rooms where prisoners can work in green. Ordering prisoners into a room is done
by clicking the same as deploying guards.

Some rooms such as the cleaning cupboard and laundry can be operated by any
prisoners, but the classroom, kitchen, and workshop are dependent on programs.

Kitchen work requires prisoners pass the 'Kitchen Safety And Hygiene' course taught
by a cook in the kitchen. This is a two hour voluntary course with a low failure rate. When
allowing prisoners into the kitchen remember its contraband generation and fit appropriate
measure to stop it from spreading.

Workshops are associated with two classes. The most basic level 'Workshop Safety
Induction' allows prisoners to use basic workshop equipment in the form of the saws and
presses. It is a two hour voluntary course with a low failure rate. After completing the class
prisoners will work in the workshop they are assigned during all future 'work' times.
Workshops also have a second level of training called 'Carpentry Apprenticeship' which is
a two hour class with a moderate-high failure rate. It requires a carpentry bench and
allows prisoners to make superior beds on carpentry tables in the future. As this course
first requires the workshop safety induction course it is very difficult to find prisoners able
and willing to complete the carpentry course.
 Classrooms are where your prisoners will take classes in 'Foundation Education
Programs' and afterwards the more advanced 'General Education Qualification'. Both
these programs are 3 hours long and require a school desk for each student. The
foundation class has a low failure rate but the general one is much harder. These classes
are not particularly helpful to your prison but will lower re-offending rates and increase
your prisons rating.

Other programs include the 'Alcoholics Group Therapy' held in common rooms for 2
hours with a psychologist. This will reduce prisoners alcohol need without getting them
liquored up. The only other way to fill the alcohol need is to allow booze contraband into
your prison.

Psychologists also hold 1-on-1 2-hour 'Behavioral Therapy' meetings in their offices to
reduce prisoner aggression and make them less likely to start future fights. These classes
are automatically assigned to prisoners who have been instigators of fights.

Doctors will lead 'Pharmacological Treatment Of Drug Addiction' courses in

infirmaries. This will work like AA meetings to lower a prisoners drug needs without letting
them get high, although it only takes 1 hour so much less time than the AA meeting. It is
automatically assigned to prisoners caught with drugs.

Spiritual Leaders will arrive to lead sermons in the chapel. This will satisfy your
prisoners spirituality need as well as creating a prison-wide effect to reduce violence for a
period of time. This is a voluntary program but unlike others prisoners will attend multiple
sessions.

The Parole Hearing takes place in the parole room and decides which prisoners may
be set free. It is vital to the rooms operation and prisoners denied parole may become
agitated similarly to those who are denied parole.

These are all the programs that take place during prisoner 'work' times. The last
program is called ‘Guard Tazer Certification' and can occur at any time the classroom is
free. It teaches guards how to use Tazers when the right research is completed and is led
by the security chief. It is only a 1 hour course and has a high pass rate.

All programs must be ordered in the programs tab and assigned a time within your
prisoners 'work' slots. You can have multiple operations of the same programs so long as
you have all the requirements to carry out the multiple slots.
 When building a regime and prisoner programs the access of your prisoners can be
another consideration. To set prisoner access use the 'deployment' window to colour code
areas. As well as setting entire areas you can create airlocks what can't be passed by
some classes of prisoner. This allows for shared med/min sec areas with separate max
sec for example.

Policy and Punishment

Policy And Punishment are the primary methods of discouraging and preventing
further problems within your prison. After researching the 'Prison Policy' option in the
bureaucracy window you can change the punishment for each crime. The time in solitary
and lockdown are relatively low impact on most prisoners, especially due to the amount of
prisoners with the trait 'stoic', however it will affect their suppression rates. Solitary for
punishment should be limited to under 48 hours in even the most barbaric prisons due to
the increased manpower of delivering food to the cells, and 24 is more than enough for
most cases. The time punishment will affect your prisons 'punishment' rating though so
very short sentences will not lower re-offending rates. The other half of the punishment is
the ability to search the prisoner and their cell. This is important for finding other
contraband and should be set to search both the prisoner and their cell for as many
crimes as your guards can keep up with. This will have the minor effect of causing unrest
when searches turn up nothing however the effect of searching a single cell is tiny and
unlikely to cause other problems in your prison.

In severe cases prisoners can be sentenced to permanent solitary or lockdown to

remove them from the general population. This is a very powerful tool for controlling
troublesome inmates however it does require extra manpower to deliver a food tray to the
detained prisoner.

Riots

Dealing with Riots is a part of the game you don't want to deal with, but you inevitably
will. During these instances of intense violence and localized unrest there are a few things
you will need to consider.
 Can The Riot Spread? This is your number one problem as riots will spread and
encompass more inmates over time if you let them. More guards to intercept such
movement and move prisoners as far from riot areas as you can using the 'Bang-Up'
control in the bottom right of the screen. This command will send all prisoners back to
their cells where tight corridors will often discourage riotous prisoners. 'Lockdown' will also
help contain riots until you can bring in more guards or congregate those you already
have.

Can The Rioters Escape? The other major danger. Riots can provide the prisoners
with the sheer unstoppable mass to punch a way out though the prisons front gates and
scarper off to freedom. This is likely to cause failure conditions if the riot was large enough
and will tank your prisons rating if not. Once again strategic placement of guards and
locked doors will help control and contain the riot while you can react. Fortunately most
riots aren't too mobile and will simply trash whatever room they started in for several
hours before moving on.

Can The Rioters Arm Themselves? Once you have the riot contained, unable to grow,
and unable to escape you need to stop them from getting into an armory, or the security
offices. If they get into the armory they will almost all arm themselves with some kind of
weapon (mostly guns) and stopping the riot will become a gunfight. In such a case the
minority of prisoners who don't surrender after the first shot are likely to kill several armed
guards and they will slaughter dog handlers and regular guards faster than you can hire
replacements. The security room has less deadly weapons but it will grant them access to
your CCTV and door control networks. Expect heavy and expensive damage on top of the
immediate loss of control over those systems. This can cause line of sight outages and
restrict guard movements making it harder to reach the riot.

Once the riot is contained it's time to fight back. This can often be as simple as
selecting all your guards and ordering them to the riotous area. Large riots must be
treated with more delicacy as large swarms of prisoners will overwhelm guards if they
arrive one at a time. To mitigate this have guards stage nearby until enough are ready to
storm and retake the area. Riot guards can be called in via the emergencies tab to assist
your regular guards, Paramedics can help deal with the sea of wounded guards and
prisoners too, although healing a wounded prisoner may cause them to begin rioting
again so it is best to keep a heavy guard presence around during this process. If any of
your guards were beaten unconscious you will have to search every involved prisoner for
keys and weapons as well as any contraband they might have picked up as the riot
traveled around your prison.

Rooms taken by riots will be marked in red for easy identification. [Note - Unarmed
staff will not enter riot areas even if you order them to.]

Utilities

Utilities are the nerves of your prison, extending into every part of it, yet they are
among the hardest things to build. This part of the guide will look at all utilities and give
advice on designing utility systems.

Power

Power systems start that the Power Station which produces 1 bar of power on its
own. The station itself is is 3X3 and a major fire risk. If water enters the same squares as
a power station it will immediately spawn multiple fires within a meter of the station. The
Capacitor is an upgrade of the power station fitted by building one in a square surrounding
the power station itself. A maximum of 16 capacitors can be fitted to each power station
each upgrading its capacity by one bar each time to a maximum of 17.

In each system there can only be one power station or it will cause an overload.
Overloads will also occur if you attempt to draw too much power from a single power
station. Overloads force all power stations to turn off but they can be reactivated by
selecting the 'power on' option after selecting it. You will have to first solve the power
problem causing it to overload first however. If you have a busy prison consider using the
power switch to split non-essential parts of your power-grid so they can be quickly
switched off in order to save the rest of your grid from long-term outages due to repairs.
[Note - You can have multiple power systems in a prison at the same time, the must
however stay totally separate.]

To work out the power needs here is a list of what equipment uses what power:

Electric chair - 2 bars

Phone Tap - 1 bar

 Door Control - 1 bar

Water Pump - 0.5 bars

Cooker - 0.2 bars

Fridge - 0.2 bars

Workshop press - 0.2 bars

Workshop saw - 0.2 bars

Laundry machine - 0.2 bars

CCTV monitor - 0.2 bars

Metal detector - 0.2 bars

CCTV camera - 0.02 bars

TV - 0.02 bars

Lights - 0.02 bars [Note - Lights will automatically be placed in a 5X5 grid upon
building a new foundation. How the game treats non-multiples of 5 appears to be
somewhat random so assume it will place an extra row of lights in each axis]

When routing power around your prison you use Electrical Cable. From this cable
smaller power lines will automatically connect to all objects that need power. These
smaller automatic wires can extend up to 15 meters and will not pass through walls or
over the indoor/outdoor boundary. Automatic wires will not form in outside spaces.
Electrical cable will pass through walls as well as this boundary, only being stopped by
perimeter walls.

Water

Like power all water is supplied by 3X3 station. For water this is the Water Pump
Station. The water station must be connected to your power system to operate and
provides all connected water pipes with water at a set pressure. At this pressure water will
flow through 764 meters of large pipes, 39 meters of small pipes, or some combination of
the two. Water use along that distance does not affect water pressure and so does not
affect the range water can travel in the pipes.
 When building your water system there are other things to keep in mind large pipes
are easy routes for prisoners to dig though. As such it is usually best to run large pipes
though your cells corridors and then use small pipes to actually connect into their cells to
their toilets. For the same reason large pipes should never run outside your prisons outer
perimeter wall unless you are specifically leading prisoners to a known location with
permanent guard and dog patrols.

Pipe Traps

To set such a trap the pipe must lead into a walled area with a single square gap free
for them to escape. You can then post guards to that gap constantly to catch escaping
prisoners. Note that if you put a gate or complete the walled area in any way prisoners will
continue to tunnel under it, and they will tunnel outside the wall elsewhere if it provides a
shorter route.

Fire Prevention

The water Pipe Valve can be useful for preventing fires by turning off water to
sections of your prison that have suffered damage. This will prevent broken items was
flooding rooms and potentially coming into contact with broken electrical equipment. If this
does happen you will face a fire, although the flooding water may contain it if the flame do
not reach a wall or drain first. [Note - This problem is particularly prevalent in kitchens
where sinks, fridges, and cookers share space.]

(Semi-)Automated Systems

After you've got the basic utilities running you can enhance parts of your prison with a
selection of automated systems. The most common of these is the automatic Door Servo.
Door servos react to a simple yes-no command system requiring only one 'open'
command out of however many connections it had to open. This is most often done
through the Door Control terminal or Pressure pads. To fit a door with a door servo simply
build a servo in the wall around the door with some overlap, it will automatically open
when the connection to it (which you must connect in the same way as CCTV cameras
from the trigger to the servo) becomes active. Items with a green light are generally
active, orange is inactive, and red is unmanned or inactivatable.

A list of these basic triggers is provided below with what effects an activation.

Item : Pressure pad

Activation trigger : Weight (any human NPC) standing on the plate

Other notes :

Item : Door control

Activation trigger : Stationed guard activates door (prisoner or staff wanting to come
through the door must be visible though any fog of war)

Other notes : only 2 door can be opened per second, if the monitor is broken all
connected doors will open

Item : Door timer

Activation trigger : Set times of day

Other notes : Times are worked by hour the same as regime timetables so if you are
using it to move prisoners you may want to select it to open in the hours both sides of
expected movements to ensure stragglers and early-birds don't get stuck

Item : Logic circuit

Activation trigger : Selectable. Options for "And (1:1) / Or (1:0, 0:1, 1:1) / Not
(Reverses input before output. 1=0, 0=1) / Nand (0:0, 0:1, 1:0) / Nor (0:0) / Xor (1:0, 0:1)" -
Where 1 represents an active input and 0 an inactive one. All possible 2-way connections
which produce an activation reaction are shown but make note that the 'not' connection
simply inverts its input signal and does not have any internal interaction between signals.

Other notes : Multiple logic circuits can be linked to form complex behaviors. Linking a
logic circuit to a door timer and a pressure plate is an easy way of making self-opening
semi-restricted doors for low security areas of your prison. The doors will open
automatically when a prisoner or staff member needs them to but will lock down for
specified parts of the day. Forcing the door to open is as simple as changing the logic
circuit from 'And' or 'Or'.

Item : Logic bridge

Activation trigger : Any active incoming signal.

Other notes : Converts connection signals to a form which is carried though larger
electrical wires. This allows you to quickly and easily transport signal around the prison.
This signal can be accessed by another Logic Bridge.

Item : Power switch

Activation trigger : Manual control

Other notes :

Events

As well as running a standard prison and dealing with the consequences of design
choices, needs, and gangs, there are random events that can occur at any time. These
events require management or they are capable of destroying your prison within a few
days if not causing direct failure states. Some of these events come in regular and
extreme versions with the extreme events requiring as much luck as skill to survive.

The events are listed below:

Event : Power Station Fire

Effect : Your power station catches fire. It will instantly lose power generational ability
and may be destroyed if the fire is not controlled quickly. The fire will also spread so
sprinkler systems are advised as well as keeping power stations near the road for firemen
to reach quickly.

Extreme Version : The power station explodes, destroying the station itself and
spreading fire to nearby areas. Besides the need to replace the power station this is
managed in the same way as the regular version.

-
 Event : Kitchen Fire

Effect : A random cooker catches fire. Again fire is best controlled with sprinkler
systems to control the spread and duration of the fire.

Extreme Version : None

Event : Bulk Intake

Effect : Within one hour of the event starting a random number of prisoners of a
random security status will be deposited at your prison from another prison in the area.
Make sure you have the ability to take up to 50+ prisoners (NOTE : Number seems to
scale with prison population) or install capacity to do so quickly.

Extreme Version : All prisoners that arrive are part of the same gang. If this happens
the only real management (besides regular gang management described above) is to
restart from an earlier savegame.

Event : Workshop Accident

Effect : A prisoner working in the workshop injured themselves. After the initial injury
the prisoner will continue to bleed so either set up an infirmary close to the workshop or
manually order a doctor to the prisoner.

Extreme Version : None

Event : Subsidence

Effect : A random section of wall or fence collapses. If it is your outer wall this may
lead to escape attempts so double outer walls are recommended. It may also, depending
on the design of your prison, allow access to the armoury or other such contraband
generators.

Extreme Version : None

Event : Virus

Effect : A random prisoner will become ill with a transmittable virus. The prisoner will
slowly lose health (but will not die) and begin to fall unconscious. While the prisoner is still
mobile they will pass on the infection to other prisoners. Guards will attempt to move
unconscious prisoners to the infirmary for care and ill prisoners (shown by a green tinge
and vomiting) can be manually healed so make sure you have enough medical staff.
Lockdowns can prevent the spread of the virus.

Extreme Version : The virus is lethal and sick prisoners will die if not treated in time.
The virus still spread the same way and can be controlled in the same way.

Event : Mass Assassination

Effect : Multiple prisoners in your prison become targets for assassination for their
role as federal witnesses. You must use your CI network to find out who is targeted and
move them to safety before they are killed.

Extreme Version : None

Event : City Mayor Demands

Effect : The city mayor, in an attempt to look good with a ‘tough on crime’ stance,
orders you to change your prison to make life more miserable for your prisoners. This
includes the removal of TV’s or Weights (Note : Removal of items only includes shared
spaces, not cells.), or removal of visitation, or reduction in food quality and quantity.
Making these changes may prompt riots and displeasure inside your prison but the items
can be reinstalled after a couple of days with no repercussions from the mayor.

Extreme Version : None

Event : Prisoner Demands

Effect : Similar to the mayor's demands, the prisoners can sometimes demand
conditions improve as a collective voice. They will demand less work, more sleep, or more
freetime and will become prone to rioting and violence if you fail to meet their request.

Extreme Version : None

-
 Events will not happen during riots or if you have less than 50 prisoners incarcerated,
and are less likely if prisoners have recently escaped or died. They can also be turned off
when starting a new prison.

Valuation

Prison Valuations are a part of the end-game for each map. It is the single value you
carry over to your next prison. The value you can carry over is dependent on six variables.

Bricks and Mortar - The actual value of your physical buildings. This is modified by the
buildings cleanliness as well as structures with cleaner stuff worth more. This value
constantly shifts by small amounts as grime levels fluctuate.

Fixtures and Fittings - The value of any objects and utilities built in your prison. This
value fluctuates dependent on objects damage with damaged goods worth less.

Stock and Materials - The value of any objects or building materials stored but not
constructed within your prison (only objects within a storage, deliveries, or export zone will
be counted).

Staff - Value is equal to half the hire cost of all your staff members.

Prisoner Capacity - $500 per prisoner based on the capacity window in the top of your
screen. This counts individual cells only and does not include holding cells. This is worth
less than the construction costs of a minimum cost cell even using regular doors so it is
very hard to 'cheat'.

Cash - How much cash you have at that moment (this may be negative).

-
 Bank Loans - How much you owe the bank. All loans must be paid off in full when
starting fresh.

Starting Grant - This is the initial loan you get at the start of each game and as with
bank loans it must be paid off in full when restarting, although you will get a new grant to
repay that value.

On top of that you gain $240 for each hour without an incident (any form of violence)
up to 24 hours before selling. You also lose $2,000 for each serious injury, $30,000 for
deaths, and $60,000 for escapes. As such it is best to wait for a peaceful day to sell.

Selling Prisons is something you can only do once. Once sold you maintain the ability
to profit from and build a prison but you cannot resell it and any gained value is lost to the
new AI owners. To sell your prison you also need to meet the set conditions:

● Accountant on payroll (Simply have an accountant in your prison)

● More than $50,000 value (less than this and you might as well start new with a
standard $50,000 grant anyway)
● 20 or more prisoners actively in your prison
● No deaths or escapes in the recent past.

Failure States

Apart from selling your prison Failure States are the other way to end its construction.

Criminal Negligence is the most unique end-state. After the deaths of 20 prisoners
within 24 hours you will be issued a warning and further deaths will cause you to be jailed
in your own prison. [More about that later when we cover Escape Mode]

Too many re-offending parolees will get you fired. Adjust the parole board leniency in
the 'policy' tab to prevent this. After 10 prisoners re-offend you will receive a warning, if
another 5 re-offend you will be fired.
 If too many wardens die you will be fired for endangerment. The warden is only at risk
while in parole meetings and prisoners shouldn't require access to their office so make
sure a guard is present at the parole rooms.

Too many Escapes can also trigger an endstate. The number of escapes resets every
24 hours and you will receive a warning 1 escape before you fail. If you fail you are
sacked and lose control of the prison.

Uncontrolled Riots will call in the national guard to take over your prison. You will be
given 6 hours to quell the riot before receiving a warning, then a further 6 hours before the
national guard arrive. If you do not stop the riot in this time you will lose control of your
prison and must watch as soldiers storm the prison. The AI will then run it far better than
you did (It cheats and stops prisoners from doing anything but regime assigned activities,
so no contraband or violence).

Bankruptcy is the final failure state. It comes into effect when you have negative
income and a negative wallet. You will be given 24 hours to raise your wallet above $0 to
avoid failure.

Once per game, and only if prepared in advance, the Lawyer can bypass an
impending failure state. This requires the ‘Legal Prep’ research in the bureaucracy tree
and costs $50,000 and 72 hours to complete. As failure conditions only last 24 hours this
research must be done well in advance to be useful and should be a priority before large
expansions or cost saving measures that may cause internal problems in your prison.

General tips

Starting out
When starting a new prison you’re going to be low on cash and in need of prisoners to
make money. This is the point most new players fail since it is very easy to run out of
funds before making the prison operable. Given the initial $50,000 loan it is possible to
build a basic layout if you know what you’re doing. Start with a holding cell over individual
cells as it will allow you to house more prisoners later for a quick burst of cash, it is also
essential for the Basic Detention Centre grant which will give you a further $30,000 to
build individual cells and other facilities. As well as the holding cell you’ll want a kitchen
and canteen to feed the prisoners, and a single solitary room to allow punishments. If
these rooms are self-contained within a single building the prison can operate well and
you should take in prisoners when ready. If they are located in separate buildings you will
also need a perimeter wall (a basic concrete wall will do) to prevent escapes.

Depending on the size of your basic rooms you should now have a small operating
prison with between 5 and 30 unhappy inmates. If run with a minimum number of guards
you should also be breaking even or turning a small profit so it’s time to expand. It’s
entirely up to you to decide what to expand first but over time you will want to create a cell
block to house prisoners individually, and some rooms to fill their other needs.
Alternatively you can run a sweatshop and build an armory to stop riots quickly, and
several workshops to churn out goods. Some of these expansions will also require offices
for bureaucracy research.

If at any point you are unsure what to do next either look at the grants list for
challenges and ideas, or think about selling your prison to make a new, better designed,
one. Starting a new prison with more funds will let you design larger ideas which couldn’t
grow organically. These are often very large prisoner which may cause your computer to
slow down, but can also be personal goals such as max-sec only, highest prisoner count
in a set space, lowest guard count automated prisons, etc…

Small prisons which enter debt or negative income can scale back to this starting size
at any time, keeping all constructed infrastructure, and build up enough funds to finish an
expansion. This will involve zoning new areas as ‘staff only’ and firing guards not required
for the smaller space. For short periods (2-3 days) very large numbers of prisoners can be
forced into relatively small holding cells if there are sufficient beds to sleep half of them.

Grants
Administration Centre - Build 2 offices, Hire a warden and Accountant (Hiring an
accountant will require the Finance bureaucracy). - Pays $5,000 on acceptance and
$5,000 on completion.

Basic Detention Centre - Build a Holding Cell, a Shower, Yard, Kitchen, and Canteen.
Hire two Cooks and two Guards. - Pays $20,000 on acceptance and $10,000 on
completion.
 Carpentry Apprenticeship Program - Produce 10 superior beds. - Pays $10,000 on
acceptance and $10,000 on completion.

Cell Block A - Raise prison capacity to 15. - Pays $20,000 on acceptance and
$20,000 on completion.

Cell Block B - Raise prison capacity to 50. - Pays $10,000 on acceptance and
$20,000 on completion.

Cell Block C - Raise prison capacity to 100. - Pays $10,000 on acceptance and
$20,000 on completion.

Cell Block D - Raise prison capacity to 200. - Pays $10,000 on acceptance and
$20,000 on completion.

Cell Block E - Raise prison capacity to 500. - Pays $10,000 on acceptance and
$20,000 on completion.

Crackdown on Drugs - Find 15 contraband narcotics - Pays $15,000 on completion.

Education Reform Program - Build a Classroom (this will require the Education
Buracracy) and have a total of 20 School Desks. Then have 10 prisoners pass the
foundation education course, and 1 prisoner pass the general education course. - Pays
$15,000 on acceptance and $40,000 on completion.

Government Bailout - $50,000 for zero work. The catch is you have to be one step
from bankruptcy to claim it.

Governmental Security Ratings - Assign 2 Dog Handlers to dog patrols, and 2 Armed
Guards to a Patrol. - Pays %15,000 on acceptance and $15,000 on completion.

Health and Well Being - Build an Infirmary with 2 Doctors, and hire 1 Psychologist. -
Pays $10,000 on acceptance and $10,000 on completion.

Inmate Nutrition Research - Have a single low quality meal regimed per day for a total
of 48hours, and at a different time have three high quality meals regimed per day for a
total of 48hours. - Pays $15,000 on completion.

Max-Sec Infrastructure Implementation - Hire 20 guards (equipped with Body Armour

and Tazers which must be researched as a security bureaucracy). Build a CCTV camera
and CCTV monitor. - pays $20,000 on acceptance and $20,000 on completion.
 Prison Maintenance - Hire a Foreman (Requires Maintanance Bureaucracy), A
Gardener (Requires Grounds Keeping Bureaucracy), and 2 Janitors (Requires Cleaning
Bureaucracy).

Prison Manufacturing Facility - Produce 30 licence plates. - pays $20,000 on

acceptance and $10,000 on completion.

Prisoner Acclimatization and Engagement - Assign 3 prisoners to work in the

Laundry, Kitchen, and Cleaning Cupboard. - Pays $10,000 on acceptance and $10,000
on completion.

Security Procedure Certification - Hire a Security Chief and ten Guards. Have 3
Guards assigned to Patrols (Patrols must be researched as a Bureaucracy). - Costs
$10,000 on acceptance and $10,000 on completion.

Staff Well-being Initiative - Build a Staffroom and have no exhausted staff. Also have
5 guards without assigned duties. - pays $10,000 on completion.

Tool Cleanup - Remove every tool and weapon from active circulation in your prison. -
Pays $20,000 on completion.

Visitation Rights - Build a Visitation Room with 3 Visitors Tables, Build a Common
Room and have at least one Pool Tables, two TV’s, and five Phone Booths in your prison.
- Pays $5,000 on acceptance and $5,000 on completion.

Design
When designing a prison it’s best to have a regime in mind. That way the prison
design can minimize the most common journeys. Prisons designed around work and
reform time may also require more workshops and classrooms than one designed for
permanent lockdown or yard time. Prisons designed for lots of freetime are hardest to
balance as prisoner needs will vary slightly by intake. In such a prison surplus of each
room will keep needs under control.

Designs usually follow 4 basic layouts with almost infinite variations:

The Mirror - Designed with multiple cell blocks on the north and south sides of the
map separated by a line of shared rooms in the middle. This design keeps walking
distances from cells low but can limit shared space by requiring multiple pathways to
ensure the opposing cell blocks can intermingle. Alternatively the two halves can be totally
separated forming two prisons of different security level.

The Road-Runner - This is the most organic design with the shared rooms built near
the delivery area, and cells placed further back to the west of the map. The design allows
for easier movement of goods and deliveries into and out of the prison but at the cost of
reducing the amount of cells which can be placed near to them. This might sound like an
expensive trade-off but the reduced contraband risk is very useful for housing high risk
prisoners.

The X - The least organic design The X requires planning from the start. It is formed
from a small box of shared rooms flanked on all sides by cell blocks to house the
maximum number of prisoners close to the shared rooms as possible in order to keep
walking distance low. X designs can be very hard to manage however as all incoming
goods must travel some distance to the correct rooms. Some common variations of the X
include extra cell arms at 45* from the centre, or The Box which uses the square spaces
at the edge of the X design to house extra shared rooms or separate max-sec.
protective-sec, or supermax areas.

The OCD Nightmare - Not so much a design as a hodgepodge of rooms loosely

collected together for form some semblance of order. This design usually forms around
specific rooms such as max-sec cell blocks, kitchens, or yards, with the other rooms
radiating out from that. Early on these designs resemble Road-Runners but differentiate in
later games by having new key-rooms spread further into the map as the prison expands.
Like the X this design is very hard to manage properly with the paths often becoming
maze-like warrens of death and disorder, but a well run prison can operate effectively with
smaller sub-prisons each symbiotically assisting each other.

Supermax
Eventually your prison will acquire that special prisoner you always feared. The
Legendary, the guard-killer, the unstable provoker. In short, a prisoner that can’t be
allowed near general population. For that prisoner the only ways out are supermax, or
death. Death is the easier option. It involves sealing up the prisoner's cell and waiting for
them to starve to death. It will however contribute to the prisoner death failure state and
reduce the game's challenge. To actually control such a prisoner you will have to consider
either setting them to permanent lockdown in a specially secure cell (Ideally one with
perimeter wall around it and armed guards ready to shoot at the first sign of unrest) or a
supermax wing with a very high guard:prisoner ratio where a more normal regime can be
used to control multiple troublesome prisoners.
 If you decide to use the lockdown method remember that solitary doors are more
hardy than cell doors, and that perimeter walls can be fired though by armed guards. By
combining these features an airlock can be created with two or three solitary doors to slow
the violent prisoner while still allowing armed guards to neutralize him.

Similarly, a supermax cell block will likely have perimeter wall down at least one side
of each room so that during insurrections guards can be evacuated and the prisoner
quelled without risking staff members. Again, solitary doors are more secure than regular
ones and airlocks should exist around exits and high-contraband rooms. If your prison is
dealing with multiple supermax-level prisoners you should be sufficiently advanced to
understand the concepts of prisoner control and have sought the challenge. Such high
level prisoners are fairly rare in even dedicated highsec prisons.

That's it. The guides over. Good luck wardens.

Keep scrolling for Death Row information.

Escape Mode
As well as acting as a prison architect curtain situations may force you to play the role
of the prisoner. This Escape Mode is activated either from the main menu [Note - This
option is included under the ‘Extra’s’ menu] or after the failure state ‘Criminal Negligence’.
As well as being able to play the prisoner in any of your own maps the main menu option
also allows you to try and escape any subscribed Steam Workshop prison, or a prison
randomly downloaded by the game.

Once inside the Escape Mode you will take control of a random prisoner in the next
wave of intake. The camera and field of vision will be locked to your character and
movement is orchestrated with the ‘WASD’ movement buttons. This means that the first
order of business will likely be to discover the layout of the prison you find yourself in, so
pay attention to your route from the delivery zone to your cell.

As a prisoner you have no needs, and have no need to follow the prison's regime.
This means that you can exploit changing patrols or natural danger times such as riots
during eat times or showers.

Your player prisoner you act as a gang leader. To recruit another prisoner stand near
them and hold down the right mouse button, a prompt will show in the top right side of
your screen when this option is available. You can then order them to follow you with the
‘R’ button at any time and they will do just that, auto-attacking guards if you are engaged
in combat. Additionally you can directly control another prisoner either by clicking on their
portrait in the top left corner or by cycling through them with the ‘E’ button.

As a prisoner you start with no traits but can upgrade them using the ‘Reputations’ tab
in the top left of the screen. The reputations all cost 1 reputation to learn to normal level,
and an additional 5 to upgrade to their advanced form (E.g Deadly > Very Deadly). As well
as upgrading your own skills you can upgrade the skills of your gang.
The Very Deadly skill is highly overpowered, allowing you to kill anyone with 2-3
punches. Similarly a level 2 instigator can break some prisons with spontaneous riots.

To earn reputation you must engage in illegal actions. The simplest of these involve
breaking items or attacking prisoners and guards. Reputation can also be exchanged to
avoid punishments at a rate of 1 reputation point per punishment regardless of length.

You can interact with objects with the right mouse button to pick them up, then left
mouse button to use them. This includes keys, weapons, drugs, and any other
contraband.
These items function identically to in Architect mode with keys opening all non-remote
doors and weapons increasing attack power or granting ranged attacks. The only
exception is the tazer which has no cooldown when used by the player character.
All items can be dropped by right clicking them in the item menu at the bottom of the
screen.

The goal of Escape Mode is, rather predictably, to escape. To counter your attempt
the warden AI will call in riot guards to deal with riots and issues freefire orders to armed
guards. If you can make it to the edge of the map with every member of your gang you
win, and any gangmembers left behind can be kicked from the gang provided the player
character has escaped.

Collectibles
While in-game there are two types of collectable you can find. Polaroids and pages of
the Game Bible. Polaroids are images of game art depicting crimes or life in prison while
pages of Game Bible are scanned directly from the game design notebook and give
insight into parts of the game. Polaroids and Bible pages can be found lying in your prison
and must be clicked on to recover, additionally some Polaroids are shown during the
campaigns cutscenes.
 Achievements
Prison Architect is linked in with the Steam Achievement system. A full list of available
achievements is below:

Get Busy Living - ​Achieve a re-offending rate of 25%

Wait and Hope - ​Unlock entire tech tree

Don't Put Me In The Dark - ​Executed a prisoner on death row

It's Not What You Know… - ​Unlocked all polaroids

... It's What You Can Prove - ​Unlocked all game bible pages

Warden - ​Loaded a prison from Steam Workshop

Architect - ​Shared a prison via Steam Workshop

I May Have Found A Way Out Of Here - ​Escape from a decent prison in escape mode

Spare The Rod - ​Stopped a riot of 50 or more prisoners

Samuel Norton - ​Have a cashflow of $50,000 or more

Freedom - ​Complete optional objective on Bootstraps

Reformation - ​Complete all optional objectives on Conviction

Crowd Control - ​Complete all optional objectives on Riot

Stone Walls - ​Build a sandbox prison with 100 prisoners

Iron Bars - ​Build a sandbox prison with 500 prisoners

D.B. Cooper - ​Sell your prison and make over $1,000,000 profit

Confined - ​Build a sandbox prison with 1000 prisoners [Note - you ​will​ need a
supercomputer to actually run a prison of that size]

Throw The Book At Them - ​Complete the story

-
 Death Row

Since the developers made executions and death row inmates an entirely avoidable
part of the game to maintain respect for the very real moral and ethical issues surrounding
the death penalty, it seemed only right to maintain that separation in the guide. The details
given below override information given in the main body of this guide where contradictions
exist.

Death row prisoners

Prisoners sentenced to death are delivered to your prison post-trial as an entirely
separate class outside the standard min/med/max ranking. In order to accept death row
prisoners your prison must first have unlocked the ‘Death Row’ bureaucracy research
using a lawyer and there must be cells within an area designated for death row inmates
only. Once inside the facility death row inmates are permanently locked down in their cells
unless using visitation facilities, or actively participating in a death row program. This
lockdown can cause some distress if the designated cells are too basic so some
entertainment items are recommended, and showers are almost compulsory fittings for
long-term holding.

Death row facilities

Since the death row prisoners are almost permanently locked down there is no need
to provide many of the amenities most other prisoners require such as canteens, common
rooms, or even punishment areas such as solitary. Food will be delivered to their rooms
from the selected kitchen which will require extra manpower however so be careful to
balance staff numbers with demand.

Death row inmates do still have a family need however, and visitation rooms are the
only external service they will leave their cells to use. when designing the death row
visitation room consider the size and security needed to contain more violent inmates as
the reduced number of prisoners using the room won’t demand the same area as the
main visitation area. Double-secure airlocks and contraband detection is also highly
important to prevent escapes or overdose as prisoners will be in their cells alone more
often.

Death row inmates also make use of the ‘Appeals’ program at regular intervals if it is
active in your prison. This requires a Parole room accessible by a visiting staff.
 Death row mechanics
Appeals
Death row prisoners are less common than regular security classed prisoners, and
pay more at $2,500 upon delivery. Once delivered death row prisoners are permanently
locked down only in cells marked for them, NOT in cells marked for shared use unlike
other prisoners. While incarcerated prisoners will attempt to appeal the death sentence
using the ‘Death Row Appeals’ program in your prison. This program lasts for 4 hours and
is voluntary by the prisoners. During the appeals process the prisoners have a chance to
repeal their sentence by being found innocent, at which point they are released, or lower
their sentence, which causes the prisoner to be marked as max security and moved to the
appropriate cellblock. This escape from death row is decided by a prisoners ‘chance of
clemency’ and decreases with each completed appeal and will continue to decrease until
it reaches a 0% chance of clemency at which point the prisoner can not avoid their
execution. Death row appeals program require an Appeals Magistrate and an Appeals
Lawyer who will arrive shortly before the appeals allotted time (which can be outside of
regime selected ‘work’ hours).

If a prisoner is executed before their chance of clemency reaches 5% [NOTE - the

‘Reduce Institution Liability’ research raises this to 10%] you are personally liable for if
they are found innocent later. Individual prisoners chance of clemency is shown in the ‘To
Do’ list at all time, colour coded by liability.

Execution outcomes
If you execute a prisoner with a clemency chance of under 5% [10% with Reduce
Institution Liability’ research] you will not be held liable regardless of the final outcome.
Prisoners found innocent posthumously will be rare, and likely decided by the unknowable
5% chance of innocence instead of actual clemency chance. You will be granted a
$10,000 bonus for a successful execution.

Similarly if you execute a prisoner with a higher chance of clemency and they are still
found guilty posthumously you will be rewarded with $10,000.

If, however, a prisoner with a higher chance of clemency is executed and

subsequently found to be innocent you will be instantly fined $50,000 in legal fees, and
any death row prisoners inside your prison or waiting to be delivered will be transferred to
other prisons and away from yours. Any progress made in those prisoners appeals
process will also be lost.

Additional failure states

Negligence - If you execute 2 innocent prisoners with higher than allowed chance of
clemency you will be placed on warning. If you execute a third you will be fired and lose
all control of your prison. Innocent prisoners executed with less than the allowed chance
of clemency will not affect this stat.

Executions
To execute a death row prisoner you must first schedule the execution from their
individual prisoner sheet. This will initiate a checklist and temporarily stop all other actions
within the prison. The execution process can be cancelled at any time but will not
progress without authorization.

Lockdown
The first stage of the process is a prison-wide lockdown of all prisoners. This will
cause the standard upset of an unplanned lockdown and may last several hours so night
executions may help reduce unrest elsewhere. If you enter a manual lockdown before
starting the execution process you can speed up the checklist and have more control
during the lockdown phase. [Note - Starting the process at night will reduce the time taken
for this check to only a few seconds and stop unrest from mounting]

Test Facility
Next, the execution room will be tested. The game will pass this check if there is a
functional, powered, and accessible execution chamber with a direct accessible path from
the death row inmate's cell to the chamber. This may take a few moments to test
depending on the size of your prison.

Execution detail and Witnesses

Once the facility is tested you must invite witnesses into the prison. These are
relatives of the prisoner and the victim who will walk from the road into the execution
chamber to watch the sentence be carried out.
You also need to organize an execution detail made up of a religious leader chosen
by the condemned prisoner who will appear on the road and wall to the inmate's cell, as
well as the security chief and warden. These three will meet at the inmate's cell for last
rites and paperwork.

The Green Mile

After being given the last chance at clemency, and making peace with the religious
leader the execution detail will escort the prisoner to the execution chamber. Once there
the prisoner will take the centre seat and wait for the final step.

Execution
With everything set up and the prisoner in place you are tasked with authorizing the
execution itself. Upon selecting this the prisoner will be executed within a few moments.

Dismissing the staff

Before things can go back to normal you must dismiss any involved staff and visitors.
 Final report
At the end of the process as you end the execution state you are given a final report.
This will tell you if the prisoner was indeed guilty as well as dispensing whatever reward or
punishment is appropriate. Opening this report ends the execution state and the
associated lockdown. The body will be removed like any other.