Patrols and number of guards

[OttosTheName]

I have at least 2 guards patrolling every 16-cell hallway, about 3 or 4 when it's a maxsec hallway. Only most of the time I check on the hallways there is just 1 guard and some of the hallways are empty.

I get that the Guard AI still has a lot of problems, but do you guys know if it helps if you hire a lot of extra guards? The bar on the top of the screen says that 20 of 60 guards are available for work, but I feel like this number is quite random. I have the feeling that it doesn't count guards that are looking at CCTV camera's or Door controls.

How many guards do you guys have extra? Or do you fix it by just assigning 5 guards to an area where you want 2-3?

(Btw, with a prison under 100 people this was never a problem, they worked very efficiently. I assume when I try and bring my prisoner number over 200 I'll need hire twice as much guards as I actually need at least?)

[Krunchy]

Door Controls, CCTV, Opening Doors, Patrol, Guarding, Searching, Esorting, and Body Removal, even Resting all play into the number X/X. This number is indeed random at times, because of all the jobs.

If you wanna bog down your pc with guards, and burn your money then go ahead. However, it would be more efficient to add more staff rooms. If you do a staff room, security room combo then you'll never have to worry about your staff being lazy or not resting. I have about 20 guards per 30 prisoners.

If you're aiming for 200 hundred prisoners I suggest dogs. These will effectively lower your drug problems that you will have, and help prevent breakouts. They are pricy, and get tired quickly, but you don't nee them running constantly like guards. If you have the dogs do a cycle in your 16-cell hallway every 2 hours, you'll be able to have just as much effect as having it do it every 5 hours. So there is no need on adding more dogs just because it's resting a lot.

Also, you probably know that once you reach 200 prisoners you start the 1000/day salary. It's very important that you keep the help, clothing, and general happiness up.

I hope that my input has helped. If you have additional questions, or comment, I will reply if you wish.

[OttosTheName]

Didn't know about the Security/Staffroom combo, thank God I often isolate my security offices so I got some room for a staffroom nearby. Will definitely try that out.
Don't think tiredness is a big problem though, usually only 1 or 2 are resting. I do have staffrooms nearby places where they patrol a lot.

I just noticed a part of the problem... Some of the guys that are standing by CCTV monitors are also linked to a patrol route. So they stand there for hours behind the monitors doing their job, while nobody's doing their patrol. Kinda annoying :P

By the way I don't use as many guards as you do, I have 65 on 155 inmates and as more and more inmates come in my jail the ratio should go down a little more. But 28 of those 65 aren't doing anything, not even resting. This just seems odd to me...

By the way, when you talk about those dog patrols, do you send them in manually every time?
I've tried that a couple of times, but I just want them to be there in case of a fight or to smell drugs on people that walk past them, sending them in every now and then is kinda pointless because they can't smell anything from the hallway. Or am I misunderstanding you?

Oh and one more thing, with a 20 guards per 30 inmates ratio how are your finances? I'm assuming you have to compensate for that with some workshops?

Thanks for the quick and lengthy reply by the way :D

[OttosTheName]

Oh and another question, how do you keep the guard dogs from biting unconscious people to death? They don't stop attacking...