How to plan out my prison?

[Moon Truther]

I would like a medium security prison, but my problom is im bad at planning, should i do the entire prison in planning mode then build it? Or what?

[Lord Strong]

all you need is rooms for everything you need to run a prison. some things can wait til after you got a few prisoners. and you can close intake or leave it on or set it to fill to capicity. what i do starting out is build my outer walls. then i plan most my prison. if you have outer walls your prisoners cant pass unless they dig through them but guards can watch them by patroling. i usually make rooms 7x7 or 13x13 depending if i need them big or small. some the quick build rooms dont work for me any more. I add showers to cells to make showering easier for prisoners. i think i need to disable shower time and keep two or three hours for lockdown if i want them to shower alone in their cell.
for my first prison or so I use fences then i may sell a couple prisons after saving them a couple times then build perimeter walls. depending how big you want your prison you may do an outer wall around the entire land plot and put road gates on road. but thats an extreme that may or may not be necessary. i believe just allowing a prisoner to roam about for a while may satisfy freedom need.
just playing a few prisons i think your initial layout slowly evolves til you got one that works for you. I actually found a layout i kind of copy from steam workshop that gave me a few ideas. if developing your prison they way you want is better for you that is where most the fun is. i still get new ideas for planning my prison. i made 10 or so different layouts.

if your needing ideas try doing a few prisons from steam workshop til you find one you like best.

[MicHaeL MonStaR]

You can do either. Sometimes I like to really sit there and plan for a good while so that I have a good idea of what it would be. But sometimes I also like to just go at it and see what happens for a bit more of a challenge (as I'd be less prepared).

But I take it you're new(er) at the game?... Well, in any case, you can't really plan when you don't know what you need or how the logistics are. Even when you try it without planning.
So I'd say, just draw what YOU think is logical is first, don't take overly long and don't worry too much, then start building and let the prison run and so on, and see what happens and make changes on-the-fly.

I can give a few suggestions about some critical points. You don't HAVE to follow these, they're not rules, but a rule-of-thumb (to me, anyway)...

First of all, it's a good idea to keep your prison-cells more towards the center, at least far away enough from the edges of the map, because when they attempt to dig out of their cells and they have an opening to exit the map, they'll be gone.
Of course you can eventually create Perimiter Walls to slow that down, but they're expensive in the beginning. So it's best to just not put cells at the edge, cause they might just need to dig a few blocks to be out.

Another thing to keep in mind is to put the cells more towards the "back" of the plan (that is, away from the road) so that you have enough space for facilities at the front. - You don't HAVE to, but it's easier for all the non-Prisoners, such as Workmen that need to carry items in and out, as well as Cooks, or Visitors that come in at the front. So Rooms like the Visitation, Workshop, Post Room, Shop, and any Rooms that need items that come from outside, would be best placed more towards the "front" (the road).
As a bonus it kind of creates this "wall" between where the Prisoners stay and the front door.

So it's best to kind of divide things with Prisoners in the back, and non-Prisoners near the front or surrounding the Prisoner-area. Just think of how it would be convenient for Guards to move between where Prisoners roam and their own Staff Rooms and such. And also details like when Prisoners get therapy-sessions in a Psychologist's office, you don't want them to have to travel all across the map or into areas you don't want prisoners to be.

Have a look at the rooms, maybe look at a Wiki as to what they do or need (there are also hints in the game itself), and see what might seem logical. But don't stress about it. Just play it and see what happens. That's the interesting part about the gameplay; You learn and you try to design a better system next time.

[Yumakooma]

A good tip I always like to follow when making a new prison is to split it into sections - don't start out trying to plan the whole entire thing (especially if you are doing a large/medium sized prison).

I usually make some fences so that I have 4-5 sections blocked off to each other to start with, and build them up one section at a time, fill it with however many prisoners can use that section, and move on to building the next.

As I finish a section I keep the doors open so my prisoners can move around freely, but I always keep the fences and jail doors in place, so that way you kind of have 'choke points' prisoners must pass through to reach certain sections. Also useful if you want to close a section down due to a riot or viral outbreak that you do not want to affect other areas.

[Jak]

planning is gr8