Security groups (Min/Normal/Max etc.)

[Paikia]

It might be a stupid question, but I'll ask anyway.

I can set areas of the prison for specific groups only, such as Protected Custody, for example. It means only that kind of prisoners can go in, but it doesn't limit them from going anywhere else, unless that area is restricted to another group. Is there a way to restrict an area, for example, for either minimum security or normal security prisoners, so prisoners belonging to both groups can enter, but not anyone else?

I realize there are other ways to achieve that separation, such as dividing the entire prison according to those groups, leaving very few shared areas (if at all). Designating different times for different groups for specific activities is another tool that can help. Still, being able to restrict an area of the prison for any combination of groups seems like the simplest and easiest solution for some problems. That would allow me, for example, to have one yard for Max, and another for everyone else (assuming I believe that's a good idea).

[caesar_andy]

Build the entrance to your Restricted area as double-doors with a small section of "staff-only" between them. This section can Not be passed by prisoners and will prevent both Sides from Interacting with each other. (It is also a good Place for a Metal-Detector).

The Same Strategy can be Used for a more-than-one-group-area. Let the area be as shared And build two double-door entrances. Each for one of the groups that are suppose to Go in.

To your Last question, Splitting your protectives from the Rest is important to. They can be killed from orange and even grey suits too. It is less likely, but possible.
The only Group, protectives can live a save Life together with, are mommys with children in a prison for women, because they are Not violent at all. Every other Combination is a death-sentence for your protectives.

[Paikia]

Originally posted by caesar_andy:

Build the entrance to your Restricted area as double-doors with a small section of "staff-only" between them. This section can Not be passed by prisoners and will prevent both Sides from Interacting with each other. (It is also a good Place for a Metal-Detector).

The Same Strategy can be Used for a more-than-one-group-area. Let the area be as shared And build two double-door entrances. Each for one of the groups that are suppose to Go in.

Thanks, that's an interesting idea, but it has one major flaw I couldn't work around (so far) - the restrictions allow for prisoners to be escorted by guards along areas or passageways designated to other groups. So your idea could work, except the guards frequently move prisoners to shared areas, even if there's a "Staff Only" buffer area. I gave it a shot last night, and still had a few hotshot Max prisoners eating in shared canteens or confined to shared solitary cells.

Originally posted by caesar_andy:

To your Last question, Splitting your protectives from the Rest is important to. They can be killed from orange and even grey suits too. It is less likely, but possible.
The only Group, protectives can live a save Life together with, are mommys with children in a prison for women, because they are Not violent at all. Every other Combination is a death-sentence for your protectives.

Yeah, I pretty much see it the same way, I was just trying to keep it simple in my example. :)

[jasonharris2]

Originally posted by Paikia:

Originally posted by caesar_andy:

Build the entrance to your Restricted area as double-doors with a small section of "staff-only" between them. This section can Not be passed by prisoners and will prevent both Sides from Interacting with each other. (It is also a good Place for a Metal-Detector).

The Same Strategy can be Used for a more-than-one-group-area. Let the area be as shared And build two double-door entrances. Each for one of the groups that are suppose to Go in.

Thanks, that's an interesting idea, but it has one major flaw I couldn't work around (so far) - the restrictions allow for prisoners to be escorted by guards along areas or passageways designated to other groups. So your idea could work, except the guards frequently move prisoners to shared areas, even if there's a "Staff Only" buffer area. I gave it a shot last night, and still had a few hotshot Max prisoners eating in shared canteens or confined to shared solitary cells.

Originally posted by caesar_andy:

To your Last question, Splitting your protectives from the Rest is important to. They can be killed from orange and even grey suits too. It is less likely, but possible.
The only Group, protectives can live a save Life together with, are mommys with children in a prison for women, because they are Not violent at all. Every other Combination is a death-sentence for your protectives.

Yeah, I pretty much see it the same way, I was just trying to keep it simple in my example. :)

for it to work you can't have any shared area's

[caesar_andy]

Originally posted by Paikia:

Thanks, that's an interesting idea, but it has one major flaw I couldn't work around (so far) - the restrictions allow for prisoners to be escorted by guards along areas or passageways designated to other groups. So your idea could work, except the guards frequently move prisoners to shared areas, even if there's a "Staff Only" buffer area. I gave it a shot last night, and still had a few hotshot Max prisoners eating in shared canteens or confined to shared solitary cells.

The question is, which facilities do you have in this area?

[Paikia]

Originally posted by jasonharris2:

for it to work you can't have any shared area's

Yeah, well, that was exactly the uncomfortable setting I was trying to avoid. In my current circumstainces, for example, I see no reason to separate minimum and normal prisoners into different canteens or different yards. I'm fine with both groups being together, and separating them would require building more canteens and more yards, which as of now, I don't have the immediate need for. I was really hoping for a more elegant solution.

Originally posted by caesar_andy:

The question is, which facilities do you have in this area?

The basic ones - dormitories, kitchen, canteen, yard, solitary cells. I'm not sure I see the relevance, though, as there was no apparent reason (that I could think of) for Max prisoners to find themselves in shared canteens or in shared soliary cells, when there was enough room in the Max-designated canteen and solitary cells.

A reverse version of the logic would sure be a helpful addition, in my opinion, as in not only certain areas can be limited to a specific type of prisoners, but certain types of prisoners can also be restricted to certain areas.

[caesar_andy]

The first solution for the cells is manual assignment. If a MaxSec guy shows up in a wrong area, order a transit into the right area. This is a bit of work, but normaly works. In My prison i don't have shared cellblocks, though. Dividing them complete, helps a lot with optimising your capacities, because not all prisoners need the same amount of guards.
Normaly it should not be neccessary, to split Low/Med and High Security Prisoners during meal, yard or freetime, because even the latter can be relative quiet, als long as their needs are served. Just use your informants to check them regulary and put all prisoners with "Volatile", "Deadly" or "Instigator" traits into the "SuperMax" group.
Just protectives and SuperMax' should go into isolated areas.

For the canteen-problem check the food-distribution in the logistics menu. It can sometimes happen, that a cellblock is assigned to the wrong canteen, but this can also be corrected. Yard should normaly be no problem as long as there is a yard near the specific cellblock. If nothing helps, put a single hour of lockup befor the yard-time, to gather the guys in their cellblock befor yard-time starts. They should then choose the nearest yard to go there.

Solitary-Cells can be handled like the other isolated areas. Put them into an area of "Staff only". Punished prisoners will be escorted there and other people should not be there. I have them normaly inside of my security-Area or near the offices.

[Paikia]

Originally posted by caesar_andy:

The first solution for the cells is manual assignment. If a MaxSec guy shows up in a wrong area, order a transit into the right area. This is a bit of work, but normaly works. In My prison i don't have shared cellblocks, though. Dividing them complete, helps a lot with optimising your capacities, because not all prisoners need the same amount of guards.
Normaly it should not be neccessary, to split Low/Med and High Security Prisoners during meal, yard or freetime, because even the latter can be relative quiet, als long as their needs are served. Just use your informants to check them regulary and put all prisoners with "Volatile", "Deadly" or "Instigator" traits into the "SuperMax" group.
Just protectives and SuperMax' should go into isolated areas.

For the canteen-problem check the food-distribution in the logistics menu. It can sometimes happen, that a cellblock is assigned to the wrong canteen, but this can also be corrected. Yard should normaly be no problem as long as there is a yard near the specific cellblock. If nothing helps, put a single hour of lockup befor the yard-time, to gather the guys in their cellblock befor yard-time starts. They should then choose the nearest yard to go there.

Solitary-Cells can be handled like the other isolated areas. Put them into an area of "Staff only". Punished prisoners will be escorted there and other people should not be there. I have them normaly inside of my security-Area or near the offices.

Kk, thanks for the tips. I guess I'll have to do it the hard way. :)

[lissa_981]

If I understnd what your saying, you would like to have min and normal share a living area (cells/yard/canteen). I do this for PC/Min early on. The trick is that your CELLS have to be assigned to a sec lvl to keep all the sec lvls you don't wont out:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=741765288
Break your big cell block areas into smaller ones: all your cells need to be disignated to make this work as indended. all the halls/canteen/yard areas are shared with small air locks directing the traffic flow. If I wanted I could designate the northern canteen airlocks as pc to allow them out and no one but pc and min sec access but in this example I want PC to stay in thier living area.
EDIT: I feel the need to note it can be problomatic to runn diffent eat regimes out of 1 canteen.