Prison Architect Prison Architect Beginner Tips

I Do Not Have Any Money

There are a few ways of approaching this problem. Firstly, money is generated through your prisoner numbers. Depending on the Security level of your prisoners (low, medium, high) each prisoner will give you a specific amount of cash at midnight ($50, $100, $150). Of course, that means that having only high security prisoners should be the most profitable option, but if you do not run a tight ship, and you lack in actual security, then do not try your luck with high security prisoners. Medium security prisoners are “just right”, if you plan on running a pretty standard prison.

If you are still building your prison and you run out of money order your workers to cut down all the local trees and sell the lumber. This is a way of getting a bit of extra cash quickly, not the most efficient method by any means.

Lastly, a workshop. You will have to research prison labor before you can build a workshop, and then you will still have to place plenty of machines to make your business venture worthwhile. After you build your workshop you still need to add “Work” hours on the schedule for your prisoners, and select which jobs can your prisoners perform (through deployment). Produced goods in a workshop may be sold manually or they will be sold automatically during the night (Midnight for License Plates, 1 AM for Wooden Planks).

The only other way to earn money is to take on Grants. Grants can give you a lot of extra cash that will allow you to construct a small yet functioning prison. Some Grants will give you an additional reward once you complete their associated objectives (usually completing these objectives is like a checklist of having a basic prison).

Prisoners Keep Rioting/Escaping/Killing Each Other

Riots, random killings, and escape attempts are all connected to one simple variable, unhappiness. Your psychologist (once you research Mental Health) can let you know when your prison is at a breaking point of a riot. By having a Security Chief you can know whether your prisoners are becoming, overall, angrier (if the Danger level is too high a major Riot could spark).

In order to ensure that your prison remains under your control you have to provide you prisoners with many different ways of fulfilling their needs. Let us go over some of the less obvious ones (or such that you might not be made aware of).

Freedom is fulfilled by having work inside the prison, going outside (Yard), calling on the phone and having some free time, in general. However, having a Yard alone is not enough. Take the time to research Prison Labor or build a Common Room so that you can give your prisoners a lot of things to do in their free time. Also ensure that there are a lot of item that your prisoners can interact with. For example, when I had a prison for only 29 prisoners I needed about 12 telephones to ensure all the prisoners could do their calls, when they needed them. In the Common Room I had a number of pool tables and TVs for the prisoners to enjoy. A few weight benches in the Yard will also help. Freedom is a measure of how desperately a prisoner wants to escape.

Holding the above in mind, the Yard and Common room offer prisoners a chance to exercise and fulfill their exercise need. Comfort may be regained in the Canteen, by sitting on benches, but the prisoners will also use benches placed at the yard.

Clothing and Hygiene go in pairs, more or less. You do not want to stink. Hygiene is easy to fulfill, simply build a shower with enough washing spots for your prisoners to use. As to clothing you need a laundry that is unlocked with prison labor. If you run an efficient laundry you should see a fresh pair of prison clothing on each prison bed by the end of each day. It might seem like a small and unimportant need, but if you ignore the different small needs eventually your prisoners will grow angry.

Family can be fulfilled by using a telephone or having a Visitation Room, where your prisoners can speak with their family. You do not need a large Visitation Room. Having two or three visitation tables is more than enough for a prison of 30.

Aside from the big needs, like Sleep, Food, Hygiene and… well… Poop, there are all these other small needs that you have to hold in mind. In essence, give your prisoners as many things to do as possible. Since you can employ prisoners in your kitchen, laundry, workshop and as cleaners you can have a very efficient and safe prison.

Steady Beginning

Rushing off to build a massive prison is not always the best idea. Take your time. Research a number of basic technologies. I recommend researching Prison Labor, Cleaning, Medical Care, Mental Health, Accounting and Security. Prison Labor (once you reach it) offers your prisoners new tasks to get occupied with, and it unlocks the laundry which keeps your prisoners even cleaner. Cleaning unlocks Janitors who will continue to clean your prison, as well as deal with any laundry in their free time. Medical Care is crucial if you expect things to get a bit rough. Prisoners, just like guards, might have to be healed, but you do not need a large hospital. Two beds and two doctors is usually more than enough, unless things get out of control.

Mental Health unlocks the psychologist, who in turn lets you see what do your individual prisoners need. The Accountant lets you keep tabs on your income and expenditure. Security unlocks the Chief, who can help your organize your prison, such as what type of prisoner is allowed into which cell block, as well as view how bad is the situation in your prison (danger level). The above Staff Members allow you to keep tabs on your prison, thus letting you know what your prisoners might need, or when things are getting out of control.

You do not need every single type of room to be successful, but it certainly helps! Starting small also lets you experiment with how many prisoners you can handle with rooms of different sizes (for example, how many prisoners can a single laundry room deal with).

Think Minimalistic

You do not always need a large room so that it can fulfill its basic duty. For example, your Administrators (Warden, Chief, Foreman, etc.) need only a 4×4 room, office desk, chair and filing cabinet. Making the room bigger or adding more items does not speed up research, or improve how they perform their duties. A larger prison cell than a 3×2 room is not really needed.

Some rooms do benefit from being larger, since the larger number of items allows your staff or prisoners to better perform their duties, but even then you must have a certain accurate guess of how big these rooms have to be. For example, you will very rarely need more than five medical beds, unless you constantly have riots (see note below). You do not need multiple cleaning closets, but increasing its size allows you to hire more prisoners as cleaners.

Here is a short list of rooms that might benefit and those that will not, from investing in more items/space.

Benefit:

Yard – More Phone Booths, more Weight Lifts, if you have only one Yard make sure it is sufficient for all your prisoners.

Canteen – It needs to be as big as it has to be. If you cannot place enough seats and tables for your prisoners you will have to build a second one, or expand the current one. Remember that a Serving Table comes equipped with only 40 Trays, so you will need more than one if you have more than 40 prisoners coming in to eat.

Kitchen – Like in the case of the Canteen, it has to be as big as the number of prisoners calls for it to be. The general formula is 2 Cookers – 1 Sink – 1 Fridge for every 20 Prisoners. You can still have more Cookers in order to more rapidly prepare food for your prisoners.

Common Room – Prisoners will not always visit the Common Room, but make sure it is big enough for all those prisoners who need entertainment (Pool, TV).

Workshop – The bigger the workshop the more workstations you can build, and the more prisoners can work in it. Take note, the number of workstations you place does not equal the number of possible workers who can work there. It’s the size of the room that determines how many prisoners can work in the workshop.

Laundry – Just as in the case of the Workshop, the bigger the more people can work in it.

Shower – While you do not need an equal number of shower heads to all your prisoners using said showers (they will swap when they are done) you should have enough of them not to cause any unhappiness. Also remember to have enough drains or your shower room and corridor will flood.

Storage – If you need more storage space then a larger Storage is useful, usually you do not need that much storage though.

Cleaning Closet – The larger it is the more prisoners can work as cleaners.

Security – The room itself does not have to be big, but the more CCTV panels you can fit into it the more cameras you can operate around your prison.

Do not benefit:

Solitary – All this needs is a 1×1 room, and a solid door, nothing else.

Morgue – You do not need a huge morgue. If you can fit in a single Morgue Slab you should be fine, unless a lot of people are dying in your prison.

Infirmary – While having more than one bed might be useful your doctors tend to heal prisoners/staff almost instantly, so having one or two beds is usually more than enough, especially if you are employing two doctors.

Note: The infirmary also is the place where the doctor's Pharmacological Treatment of Drug Addiction program takes place. It requires a medical bed for each addict, 10 of which can participate in one session of 1 hour length.

Garbage – The default Garbage area is usually more than enough for your needs. It would be very hard for you to produce enough trash to overflow it.

Staffroom – Staff appears to rest just as quickly in a large or small room, I am not certain about items however.

Office – Building a larger office, or placing more furniture, does not appear to benefit your administration in any way.

Contraband

Contraband are items that your prisoners have stolen/smuggled in, and which are considered illegal. There are four categories.

Weapons – Weapons are the most dangerous forms of contraband your prison can hold. Weapons are mainly used when prisoners fear for their lives and defend themselves against other prisoners. However, weapons can also be used against staff members for rioting prisoners trying to escape. Most weapons are made out of metal and therefore easy to detect by a metal detector.

Drugs – Narcotics can be smuggled into your prison, and prisoners can steal narcotics from rooms that contain them. Narcotics have adverse effects on prisoners, making them more violent and can potentially cause them to overdose. Narcotics can develop into an Addiction that will cause prisoners to seek out drugs more often if left untreated. Most narcotics are smelly and can therefore easy to detect by a guard dog.

Tools – Tools are the most troublesome forms of contraband your prison can hold. Tools can be used by your prisoners to dig Escape Tunnels. Again, non-violent prisoners who fear for their lives will almost always try to dig an escape tunnel to freedom. Jail Keys can also be used by prisoners during a riot as a quick escape attempt. This can be prevented by manually locking entrance doors to foot traffic. Most tools are made out of metal and therefore easy to detect by a metal detector. Keep in mind that some tools can be used as weapons, so try to keep prisoners happy and the demand for tools won't be so high.

Luxury – Except for the booze, which reliefs the Alcohol need, luxuries don't serve a purpose, but can still be smuggled into your prison. Some luxuries are smelly and therefore easy to detect by a guard dog.

Contraband is obtained from a number of sources. Family members could smuggle it in during a visit, the prisoner himself might smuggle it in when arriving to your prison, or it was stolen from one of your rooms. For example, a prisoner working in a workshop could obtain heavy-duty tools to escape with, or your canteen’s forks could be stolen for weapons.

You can order a number of possible searches, targeting an individual and his cell, an entire cell block ,or your whole prison. The larger the scale of your search the more unhappy your prisoners could be. Searching a prisoner’s cell is never as bad as searching a prisoner, especially if he is innocent.

Depending on the contraband found during a search a prisoner could be put in Isolation or Lockdown. During a search you may also stumble on tunnels, which gives you a good pretext to search the prisoner who previously lived in the cell.

About The Prisoners

Minimum SecurityMedium SecurityMaximum SecuritySuper MaxProtective CustodyDeath Row

There are initial three types of prisoners. Min, Medium and High Sec. Each Prisoner type offers you different rewards when they arrive: $300 for MinSec, $500 for MediumSec and $1000 for HighSec. The special category "" prisoner will pay $2500. They all share a daily reward of $150. It’s not just about the money though. MinSec prisoners are normally very calm, and you will have a hard time forcing them into a riot. HighSec are the most dangerous, as they tend to be the most murderous, making them explode will be much easier than with Medium and LowSec.

Risk categories and can only be assigned manually; they will neither arrive to your prison nor automatically set in case of some event. Risk category cannot be set manually; they will always have to arrive like this.

Level Graphic Notes These prisoners are the least risky and violent inmates to bring into a prison. Typically, these prisoners also have shorter sentences due to their lower level criminal charges, and therefore are due to be released more often. prisoners pose a moderate risk in accordance with their crimes. These prisoners may have longer sentences than prisoners, but are likely to be less violent than inmates. prisoners pose the greatest security and violence risk of the available pool of transferable inmates. These prisoners are more likely to become angry when their needs are unfulfilled, may have more "Legendary" traits assigned to them than lower risk categories, and are also more likely to be Gang members. Prisoners of this category cannot be transferred into your Prison, and instead must be designated manually on an individual basis. A rating of indicates that this prisoner is extremely dangerous to the point that they should be treated differently from the general population, possibly even put in 24 hour lockdown. Prisoners of this category cannot be transferred into your Prison, and instead must be designated manually on an individual basis. This security level allows the player to segregate at-risk prisoners from the general population for their own protection. This is especially useful for protecting Snitches, Ex Law Enforcement, blown Informants, or even for breaking addictions through increased security. It can also be used to avoid Mass Assassinations if the according random Event happens, to isolate infected prisoners if the Virus event happens. Prisoners of this category may only be transferred into your prison after unlocking this ability from the Bureaucracy menu. These inmates have an unlimited sentence time, instead having to go through an appeals process to attempt to commute their sentence before being executed by you. prisoners require specially designated cells and do not participate in Regime activities. inmates cannot be reassigned to any other category, however may be automatically reassigned to if their hearing is successful.

You can make the three main types of prisoners share a Cell Block, and if you keep everything under control you should have no problem with HighSec Prisoners either. However, HighSec prisoners may bring in very dangerous contraband, so you will have to regularly check them for firearms and other dangerous tools, or they might cause a serious problem for your prison.

You can decide what types of prisoners will come in, and while there are different types of prisoners a LowSec prisoner could stay in prison for as long as a HighSec prisoner, simply because he might had committed numerous smaller crimes.

If you managed to build an efficient and secure prison then having HighSec prisoners only, for maximum profit, could be the way to go.

Escape

Prisoners will build tunnels in an attempt to escape your prison. They will usually try to take the shortest route possible, which means that they could dig their tunnel right next to your patrolling officer, but it is just as likely that they could exploit an area without any guard patrols.

The best way to stop such an escape from happening is to perform prison cell block searches. If you do not want to anger your prisoners start a Cell Block search when all your prisoners are in the yard. This will tag only their cells/toilets, so you won’t have any incidents of unfair searching. If there was a tunnel your guards will find it.

Making periodical searches, ever two or three days, may be a good idea, if you are afraid that your prisoners are up to something.

A good way of delaying an escape attempt it to build a perimeter fence around your prison. Since a prisoner needs to reach the outer wall having a fence will force him to dig for longer, thus giving you more time to discover the tunnel.

Given the opportunity prisoners may also use other methods to escape your prison. They may get a hold on keys, allowing them to leave the prison at an opportune time, or they may use a clog-up in the door system to run through when nobody is watching. It is very important to sort through the different rooms and areas in your prison, and underline which of them prisoners can have access to, and not (this can be done through Deployment Mode). I had two escape attempts once, when my prisoners, working as cleaners, were allowed OUTSIDE the wall, in order to reach the Administrative Offices, in order to clean them up. Of course, as soon as they left the perimeter they made a dash for the map’s edge, but my guards were faster. Pay careful attention to your Deployment map!

Your Security Force

The only thing standing between the prisoners and freedom (not counting all the walls and doors) is your Security Force. Your Guards will do all the escorting, searching, patrolling, fighting and door opening in your prison. They might be expensive but if you want to keep an eye on everything happening in your prison you will need a lot of them.

But Guards alone do not cut it. You need a Chief, and as much research done as possible, in order to maximize the effectiveness of your guards. For example, without the ability to Deploy your Guards, or to set their patrol routes, you will find most of them not doing anything productive, while certain areas, like the Workshop, Laundry Room, or even the perimeter fence around your prison won’t be guarded at all.

Deployment will let you choose where your guards will be stationed. If an area is joined (like the cell block on the picture above, which includes the canteen, cells, shower and common room) then the guards will patrol all around it. The larger such an area is the more guards it will need, if you want to keep an eye on everybody. Smaller areas, such as single rooms, need only a single guard.

Setting a patrol route will let your Guards and Guard Dogs patrol on a per-specified route. You can allocate the number of guards who will be patrolling on that route. I found that these Patrols are especially important when it comes to keeping an eye on the area around your prison. In case your searches fail you will have that last line of defense, a Guard or Guard Dog, ready to stop the escapee.

Of course, Guards cost a lot of money. What can you do to save a bit of cash? The only alternative to having Guards patrol areas is to place CCTV cameras. These are operated from a Security room, and each CCTV monitor can watch 8 cameras at a time. Additional cameras will cause the monitor to rotate through them. So the more cameras attached, the longer the wait time before it will be viewed again in the rotation. CCTV cameras rotate in a near 180 degree range, meaning that they can be used to keep an eye on rooms, corridors, or the vast outside, mildly effectively. In an open room the camera has a visual range of 20 blocks. A guard is required to sit in the Security Office in order for the Cameras to work (he has to stand on the marked tiles in front of the CCTV Panels).

When things get out of hand you can call for the Riot Police. You can call three such Squads, with a total of 18 Riot Police Officers. These are tougher and stronger than your ordinary Guards but they are by no means undefeated. If there is a sufficiently big riot, and all the prisoners are armed to their teeth, you could find that the Riot Police are completely helpless. Do not let the situation get out of hand so much!

Sell Your Prison

Eventually you might want to build something bigger, or you got bored of your current prison. What can you do? In your reports click the Valuation Tab, if you have an accountant you will have an option to sell your prison and open a new one. The difference is that you sell your current prison, and receive some bonus cash or penalties, and all that extra money is added to your new prison. For example, when I started a game I had a prison worth $90,000. Thanks to a huge bonus, and a small expansion of the prison after it was finished I sold the old prison and started a brand new one with a $190,000 cash reserve. Since I could take my grants against I could a build a prison worth $250,000!

In order to sell a prison you need to fulfill a number of requirements:

1) You need an Accountant

2) Your prison capacity needs to be a minimum of 20

3) Your prison must be worth at least $50,000

You can check your Valuation tab at any time (after you hire an Accountant), and decide when is the best time to sell your prison.

Take note that the “Time Since Last Incident” bonus will zero out when something bad happens. This could be a riot, an escaped prisoner, or even somebody getting beaten up too roughly. Eventually something could happen, such as an angry HighSec Prisoner starting a fight over not getting to shower, and your massive Bonus could be thrown out the window and into a drain, in an instant.

Failure Conditions

If the player meets any of the failure conditions listed below, they will no longer have control over their prison. Instead of the game simply ending, the player is still allowed to view their prison in its final moments.

Note: With the Legal Defense research, the Lawyer becomes able to avert the Game Over event once per game.

Riot If you let a riot run for too long, the government will be forced to step in and take over your prison. In this event you will be sacked, and the National Guards will be deployed to retake your prison by force.

This is a very violent end to your prison because every inmate who is acting aggressively while the soldiers are present will be shot and killed. Most prisoners will surrender to the soldiers, but the soldiers do not shout warnings. Prisoners that do not surrender will be killed. This failure condition is activated after a riot has happened for six in-game hours. Once activated, you will have another six hours to stop the riot.

Bankruptcy If you have a negative bank balance and a negative cash-flow, you are bankrupt. You will have 24 hours to put in place a financial rescue package before being sacked. Once per game, the Government Bailout grant may help you out.

Deaths Too many deaths in a single day will trigger a warning. If more deaths occur the next day you will be sacked. You will then be convicted of Criminal Negligence, and will spend time within your own jail as a prisoner.

This failure condition is triggered if you have 20 deaths in one day. The CEO will call at midnight, informing you that if five more people die the next day, it will be game over.

Escapes Too many escapes in a single day is a PR disaster. If more escapes occur the next day you will be sacked.

This failure condition is triggered if you have 20 escapes in one day. The CEO will call at midnight, informing you that if five more people escape the next day, it will be game over.

Warden Deaths This failure condition is triggered when you get too many Wardens killed. The CEO will give you a call notifying you that it's becoming difficult to find new wardens to hire due to the fear of death while working in your prison. If you get another warden killed after the CEO calls you, you get fired and lose the game.

Re-offending Paroles This failure condition is met when you give an early release to prisoners who end up re-offending by committing new crimes. If you release too many re-offenders, The CEO will give you a call to notify you that it needs to get fixed quickly. If you continue to release prisoners with a high re-offending rate, you'll get yourself fired and lose the game.

Wrongful Executions This failure condition is met when you execute prisoners with a clemency chance higher than that of the state tolerance, and the prisoner is found to have been innocent. After the first 2 times, a call comes from the CEO warning you not to do it again. If it happens again, you get fired and lose the game.

Misc Hints And Tips

General Be sure to leave some of your guards un-deployed so that if any unforeseen job or incident happens outside your established zones, those guards can rush over and handle the crisis. This also helps when new Prisoners arrive and must be escorted in by a free guard.

Having built a Security room near areas which are common for prisoners to go, such as Kitchen, Canteen, Laundry, Yard, Workshop or Shower, is a good addition, since guards will respond to nearby incidents.

Hire cost will increase as body armour is unlocked ($100 per guard) and when tazer rollout has been researched ($400 once the guard passes the Tazer Certification program).

A popup marker of the guard will show up only when he is being attacked by a prisoner.

Guards are not friendly to prisoners who have "Cop Killer" reputation. Make sure to order him to move when he stops a prisoner with that reputation to avoid unnecessary death of the prisoner.

Everytime a Guard spots an incident, they will always alert the Player about it using an in-game alarm sound.

When prisoners incapacitate all guards in an area during riots, the guards will not enter that area, since it's "above their pay grade" (They will not enter areas controlled by rioting prisoners).

Guards use batons, which gives them good odds against an unarmed inmate. However, since the baton is not meant to kill, it does not give them an edge against inmates with weapons such as knives and shanks (or if they've picked up an unconscious armed guard's shotgun).

Unlike prisoners and Guard Dogs, guards will not kill those that they fight. They stop when the prisoner in question has either been cuffed or knocked unconscious and then cuffed.

However, guards may still kill prisoners if they have "Cop Killer" reputation.

If guards lost their equipment, they will return back to Armoury if there is one available or use their fist to stop fights.

Prisoners engaged in digging will be tired the next day since they're not discharging their sleep need. If you have a Psychologist, check prisoners' sleep need just before dawn. If it's still high, they were likely digging during the night.

If a prisoner has a high freedom need, they are much more likely to dig. Also the family need and the security need may be reasons to dig a tunnel.

An expensive Perimeter Wall will drastically slow down digging time, and if it can be afforded, it's highly recommended you surround your prison with it.

Leave a hole in the Perimeter Wall (e.g. at the prison entrance) to lure prisoners to dig through it, but place a dog patrol above it.

Do not use large pipes near the outer prison wall. Make big pipes only lead from the cells to the prison center, not to the outer walls.

If dog patrol leaves signs on the ground, search all toilets in the area. Its easier to click: search cell block. But this takes more time for the guards and prisoners are more upset. There is a chance that tunnels will not be found this way though.

A Guard Dog will dig more often when it is right above a tunnel. However, this event does not alarm the player nor does reveal tunnels automatically, except when choosing J. W. Periwinkle as a warden, who gives the dogs a 50% chance to fully uncover tunnels.

A good strategy to use before a riot begins is to use the Bangup Emergency Action. Doing this will tell all of your willing prisoners to go back to their cells, which will lessen the potential power of any riot. It will also help your guards, dog handlers and armed guards because they won't have to deal with every prisoner at once, they can just handle them one by one in their cells.

Kitchen The Kitchen should be near the canteen and deliveries zone or storage room to avoid long walks.

Keep your kitchen secure, as inmates will try to fetch Knives from it. As the kitchen is a source of weapons, any fight starting there could quickly become very bloody. You may want to restrict which prisoners are able to go (and work) there.

It is prudent to designate the kitchen a staff only area, if you have unlocked Deployment via Bureaucracy. This will prevent theft of tools/contraband, the potential escape of prisoners assigned to work there and also will prevent an optional route around any Metal Detectors you have installed at the canteen. However, keep in mind that prisoners cannot work at a kitchen marked as staff only.

Prisoners working in the kitchen will also take ingredients from delivery zones and storage rooms to the kitchen, unless they are flagged as staff-only. If you want them to do, make sure to have them secure and inside your prison.

Each cooker cooks a maximum of 20 ingredients. Each Fridge holds a maximum of 40 ingredients.

Placing a bin in the kitchen will reduce time spent walking to garbage area to dispose of food. Workmen will carry garbage bags from the bins to the garbage area.

Canteen Make sure to have enough tables and benches or chairs so your prisoners can eat under good conditions. They can be placed back to back to save space.

Leaving a hallway between the tables and benches allows cooks to move faster when serving meals and cleaning up the mess afterwards.

As eating is only possible during eat regimes, you will always have many prisoners rushing to the canteen at once. Keep in mind that you will need enough space in the canteen if your prison grows. Instead of making a big canteen it is much safer against riots and mass murder to use the food logistics and make a small canteen for every cell block. One kitchen can provide many small canteens.

Setting up different regimes for the different risk categories is a possible way to further reduce simultaneous traffic at the canteens.

Allow easy access to the canteens, by having big enough doors in all directions (best in "Door Mode: Locked Open"), as this will further reduce the chaos.

Increasing the number of Serving Tables will increase the amount of food that can be given to the prisoners.

Canteens have a tendency to become battlefields, so it's a good idea to station a few Guards or Dog Handlers there.

Prisoners keep staying in the canteen while designated meal time, even if they finish eating. So you may think to set small toilet sections in it to avoid prisoners' "leakage" problems (it tends to lead to a huge rampage).

Notes

Prison Architect Beginner Tips image 145

Prison Architect Beginner Tips image 146

Prison Architect Beginner Tips image 147

Thanks to Chris Delay, Mark Morris and the Introversion development team for giving us Prison Architect.

Stay safe and thank you for reading.......

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Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=719393337

Prison Architect Beginner Tips