How can I build a successful prison?

[Bird.]

All day, I've been building prisons, (Yea PRISONS) and every time I notice some small detail that completely ruins the prison, and when I think "I can fix it" I realize I clamped everything to close together without knowing in an effort to keep the needs. I've been doing it on sandbox mode, haven't tried the legit mode yet because i find it more fun to have no limits.

[Frazzledragøn the Trustworthy]

The "legit" mode? The campaign?
The campaign is limited, more of a tutorial than anything. It doesn't even explain all the features in the game.

Other than that, a few simple things:
1. Keep rooms/buildings organised. Have a central corridor that runs uninterrupted through the prison.
No prisoner should be forced to go through the shower, laundry and common room to get to the infirmary. Think or a building you know perhaps as orientation.
Perhaps you can sort rooms into buildings for: Recreation (Church, Library, Common Room), Utility (Laundry, Cleaning, Infirmary), Administration (Offices, Armory, maybe storage)
(Build long delivery/garbage areas, so several trucks can unload at the same time)

2. Keep room for expansion:
Sure, that canteen you built might serve 30 prisoners. But it's boxed in on all sides, how to make it bigger?

3. Build simple, easy to copy-paste Cellblocks:
Cells piling up next ot the offices? Maybe cram four more in between canteen and laundry. Can you fit three in that corridor? Learn how to build efficiently.
My personal favourite: Corridor + 7 Cells + Corridor ( + Shower)

4. If prisoners are angry, don't simply reward them with more Freetime. Think of a way to more efficiently fulfull their needs for Recreation, Excercise and Family

5. Keep pathways short
Cooks shouldn't waste most of their time carrying boxes
Workmen shouldn't be hauling 10 sheet metal all the way across the map
Prisoners shouldn't have to walk for half an hour to take a shower
The shorter the walk distances, the less angry the prisoners and the fewer staff you have to employ to do the same job.

[Bird.]

Thank you! By the legit mode, I meant the mode where you have a limited amount of starting money, but I can see where I went wrong wording that.

I think my problem is that whilst building, I may put to much attention on the needs and then I will forget that I need to stay organized. I'm not sure how to keep my pathways short, because I feel like that'd not work with the pathways part. I like to have 3 huge boxes for min/nor/max, and that takes a bit of pathwork, and even though I see loads of prisons doing pathways great, every time I try I just end up making these long paths...

[Bird.]

For example (And I know its ugly,I'm new!), I just seem to always do this in all of my attempts even though every time I start a new one my mindset is not to. Its almost like I just, don't care, but also do. Rip. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1130941015

[Bird.]

^ that was like 10 minutes of work fyi

[Bird.]

Some examples of my other prisons:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1130943343
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1130943301
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1130907109
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1130781311

[MekaDovah]

Most of the screenshots show large rooms with a lot of space going to waste. The 3rd one in the set of 4 is the odd one out, looking a lot better.

As Frazzledragon says, it basically boils down to efficiency. Trimming those giant rooms down to what you need will go a long way towards that. For example, how many beds do you think you really need in the infirmary? Do really have that many people getting hurt or needing drug treatments? Also a single doctor can do drug treatments for up to 10 people or so. Keeping stuff like that in mind can help you trim things down and get the most bang for your buck.

[Bird.]

^ Ignore the 3rd one. Its not mine, now that I think about it. Must've taken a screenshot of one of the workshop prisons I was looking at to attempt to fix my prison.

Thank you for your tips, and I'll get back to you guys with progress as I probably wont be going to sleep anytime soon... Don't worry i'm okay. :P

[CloudSeeker]

The thing I say is to simply have good design.

If you want a money prison then you need to cut expenses as much as possible. Few guards is a good way to do that. However you do also want to keep fights and incidents low. If you do not have any incidents in 10 days you get 10,000 every single day, this is a good way to get money. To manufacture stuff is also a very good way to make money. But the bigest money gain by far is parole. If you have a prison built on reform and have a massive success on it then you will get a lot of money every single day.

Here is some tips I use:

Build a single kitchen big enough to support all prisoners at the most expensive food you can give them. A well fed prisoner is a happy prisoner and will most likely not cause problems.

Do not build multiple kitchens. It will cause supply problems as the game is bad at handling them. Insead fed all prisoners of a secuity rating at one time and another at another time.

Segretation is king. You need to segregate people in your prison. It is mostly so that you can remove all Ex-law enforcement and sitches from them population that will kill them. Having them killed in prison is bad for stats, reform and your days without incidents bonus.

Do not have all security levels. If you don't want to deal with max sec you should build for low or medium sec. Have a area just for medium and another for low where they NEVER EVER get to interact with each other. If you want a school for both areas build two instead of sharing, if you don't this might be where a snitch gets killed. Low sec will never kill each other so just use them instead of Protected Custody.

Never build for more then 500 prisoners. You can but the game doesn't handle that many very well. The game will lag a lot.

Intel is God. You need good intel on your prisoners if you want to to run well. You need to remove snitches and ex-law as soon as you can. They can also save you time on searches intead of having to do a shakedown.

Control contraband. You want to control what goes into the prison as well as what they can find. I place Metal detectors at all kicthen entries, workshop entries and cellblock entries to remove any metal they carry. If you have dogs walking around when it is food time they can sniff out most other stuff. Search EVERYTHING that gets delivered into the delivery area.

Do shakedowns regurally. You need to do this to remove contraband. No matter how hard you try you can't stop them from trying to dig themselves out if you have a workshop as they will get a wodden pickaxe. It also clear the prison from drugs and alcohol.

Punish hard. Do not let anything slide, hard punishements. This will give you a large candidates for CI's. Also do not have sleep hours but instead use lockdown. It will count as punishment but the prisoners will just sleep so why not get that extra punishment score up high which Sleep doesn't.

Expand with the ability to grow. Do not build everything in a singel building, use the outside as corridors.

Have a deadmans land area. Contraband can be thrown in over the walls, they can throw 10 squares from the closest fence. That is why you need a deadman's land between the closes wall and your prison. So a 10 square staff only area.


This is an old picture of one of my prisons:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=948775737

[gonzo191]

I think the reasons your prisons are failing are because you often waste money on large unsused spaces and you overstock on equipment and staff. Case and point, day 22 and you're already in the hole.

I usually build using the following rules:

1. Build small and incrementally.
2. Hallways and massive thoroughfares should be 2 units wide to limit shankings.
3. Eliminate all group shower rooms. Instead place shower heads/drains in cells. That way you don't need to specify shower time, just give them freetime and they'll handle it themselves.
4. Build 1 huge kitchen which delivers to multple canteens.
5. Build 1 sufficient staff room with all staff needs
6. Don't do shakedowns regularly, it just pisses off prisoners causing them become agitated more quickly. Instead search cells when they're working and search toilets at night.
7. Search prisoner and cell anytime a prisoner is found with contraband or enfracts on your rules.
8. Build a large workshop with a focus on producing superior beds as they sell for $400.
9. Give your prisoners freetime and yard time.
10. Set up parole and have multiple sessions a day.
11. Build a dungeon for whenever Curtis decides to fnck you with the 'No Room Prisoner' (event)
12. Know how to kill erratic prisoners smartly i.e. starving or the occasional beatings until unconscious and let bleed out.

[Bird.]

All of these tips are great, and I definitely seem to be improving, however I have one issue. When starting up a prison, I tend to waste my money and never finish my grant. Is there a certain strategy I should go for when beginning? Design or Strategy wise.

[gonzo191]

Refer to tip #1 as it's your BFF in the early game.

Originally posted by gonzo191:

1. Build small and incrementally.

Let me expand on tip #1. Don't build any unnecessary buildings early. Build small/medium enough with the intention of expanding later on. There should be no wasted space when you first start. Also, when you first start you don't need massive structures. So no huge reception, canteen, infirmary, classroom, storage, etc. The only room you may want large enough is the yard but without any equipment.

Also don't choose grants which have a long lifecycle, so grants like the education one shouldn't be done until you have sufficient funds as it take forever to complete. Instead focus on the smaller ones.

Don't expand too quickly. Let your prison run at 50 prisoners for a while before expanding to 100 capacity. That gives you some leeway in completing grants, allows you to focus on expansion and minimses incidents.

Don't waste time on minimum security intake, it's not worth much until you have a working parole system. Instead focus on medium and bump prisoners down manually to min sec at intake based on a specialised rule of say "< 10yrs and no murders". It's a bit tedious to be 'helicopter parenting' intake but you'll have more daily income than if you opted for min sec intake.

[Bird.]

Is there a design I should go for? I tend to use the quick build cells, and I havent used the lux before, however I don't think I have a good design in mind. I know I need a reception area, but should I have office rooms on the left and right of that, and then straight forward is the cell area, or should I have a hallway in the area that I would have otherwise used as the cell area, with two Cell Blocks on the left and right, or what? I mean, I have so many ideas, but I'm getting bored of the sandbox mode since I keep building the same thing, so Is there a good design I should go for?

[Bird.]

Thank you! I will begin building now, and I will post a screenshot of my progress and you can critique it.

[Bird.]

Heres my current progress. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1132329193

[Bird.]

It seems the problem is visitation, which I have a room for, however not a lot of people show up, so It still seems to be a problem because I don't have any phones. Where should I put those. Cells or in the yard? (I'm aware that I need a security room to tap but that'd come later)