Design Help

[WissX]

I need help with general design of my prison. Is there any way to properly design one? All my past prisons have failed due to chaos from the design.

thanks!

[Nefai]

Can you post some screenshots? Lots of people happy to critique ;)

[Frazzledragøn the Trustworthy]

The most important aspect to me:
A central path way. An uninterrupted path that goes in between your rooms, from the entrance to wherever you want. It can have bends and splits, the point is that prisoners/staff should never be forced to cross between rooms. To get to the shower, prisoners shouldn't walk through the canteen first. To get to the laundry room, janitors shouldn't have to walk through a common room and an infirmary.

Personal preference:
Organise buildings by purpose.
Office building: contains about 7 offices + 1 staff room. Can also house the armory for example.
Storage and utility: Pretty simple, contains storage, water pump and power station(s)
Recreation (and labor): Common room, Chapel, Prisoner-infirmary (for drug treatment), Library, Laundry, Cleaning Cupboard - maybe Workshop and Classroom
Services: Possibly Staff Only. Laundry, Mail Room, Infirmary, Morgue.

Keep pathways short: Workshops and Education related rooms should be close to the road, so exports work faster and your workers aren't as busy, and lessons become more efficient due to teachers being on-time.
A prisoners who takes 30min to reach the shower is going to be a lot angrier and more likely to start a fight compared to the guy who only takes 5 minutes.
Canteen on the other side of the map from the workshop -> lots of work-time spent walking, and not cutting wood.

Don't give them too much sleep. This isn't a prison design problem, but a regime problem. Just mentioning it, because it's a common cause for daily fights, murders and riots.

[Vovin]

I like to use only one entrance/exit, so if something awful happens, they can only escape in one direction. A 5x5 around the perimeter with dog patrols will cover tunnels.

From my experience, I'd say putting Armed Guards inside is a bad idea if you have gangs on. Long pathways with a sniper tower behind a fence is good. Also sticking a shower head in every cell is better than a shower room, so people don't get murdered every morning :v

For work places etc, I put those in their own pathway. So in order to get to/from it, they *have* to go through that single path, and line it with metal detectors.

[WissX]

thank you!