How do YOU handle protective custody?

[Benzin]

In an efford to protect inmates marked for death, I built a dormitory for 8 inmates with its own canteen and yard nearby, separated from the rest of the prison and marked as protective custody. Of course i had to further isolate this protected area using a staff only hallway, so that the dumb protected inmates wont exit it and go hang out with the other prisoners.

But now, i had to go to my "Intake" tab and instead of the "Fill to capacity" setting i normally keep, i had to set it to a specific number, wich is the total capacity of my prison minus the 8 protected capacity. Otherwise the game sends me more prisoners that are NOT protected (obviously) and i have nowhere to put them. So any time my prison grows i have to manually adjust this number.

As much as i LOVE this game, i must say its whole security level mechanic is terribly designed and pretty much useless as it is.
Since we cannot mar an area for more than one security level nor can we deny access to a specific (single) level, we end up having to build areas marked as staff only just to keep the inmates from mixing.

But anyway, how do you guys handle your protected imnates? is there an easier way of what im doing?
Would like to hear your experiences on this.

[facciola007]

I make seperate yards for all levels of inmates
PC being the lowest pop but usually the most frequent to mess your plans up just give them a small building. Make sure that all zone do not ever interact with others. IE High security inmates going to places that low or PC supermax or death row go. The exception is reception, visiting, parole hearings.

^^All suggestions

[Benzin]

Originally posted by facciola007:

I make seperate yards for all levels of inmates
PC being the lowest pop but usually the most frequent to mess your plans up just give them a small building. Make sure that all zone do not ever interact with others. IE High security inmates going to places that low or PC supermax or death row go. The exception is reception, visiting, parole hearings.

^^All suggestions

Ok, but if you do keep common areas, such as parole, visiting, etc. Then how do you keep the lower security ones from going to the higher security areas?

[Ohm is Futile]

I have a separate everythin for protective custody. Well, almost. I posted a prison a few days ago. It has separate everything for most security levels. Then again, you lose privileges as security increases. You could make those things available to them if you want to, it's just extra work. My biggest gripe is that you have to sort prisoners for protective custody without mods. I can't imagine you wouldn't disclose information on your being ex-law enforcement or a snitch when being jailed. So even with the proper facilities, PC candidates often die before they're actually sent to PC because I can't be bothered to sort prisonners manually most of the time.

Also, if you label areas as protective custody, they won't count towards your capacity afaik. Just make sure your deployment screen is all set properly.

[Benzin]

Originally posted by Ohm is Futile:

I have a separate everythin for protective custody. Well, almost. I posted a prison a few days ago. It has separate everything for most security levels. Then again, you lose privileges as security increases. You could make those things available to them if you want to, it's just extra work. My biggest gripe is that you have to sort prisoners for protective custody without mods. I can't imagine you wouldn't disclose information on your being ex-law enforcement or a snitch when being jailed. So even with the proper facilities, PC candidates often die before they're actually sent to PC because I can't be bothered to sort prisonners manually most of the time.

Also, if you label areas as protective custody, they won't count towards your capacity afaik. Just make sure your deployment screen is all set properly.

Yes, it makes no sense that an excop or ex prison guard doesnt disclose and actually requests protective custody.
The way i detect snitches & other targets is using the confidential informants. Assassination Targets show up with a reticle over them.

Sadly, protected cells, dormitories do count towards capacity. I have right now a dorm for 8 marked as protected custody, and it did increase my capacity. I had to go to intake and manually set it myself.

[Ohm is Futile]

Hmm, must be because I'm also using the fill to capacity with prisoner types, so it doesn't actually fill my prison.
I know about CIs, but you have to activate them and such, and they need to have proper coverage. Still annoying for me to deal with. Often they'll die the day they come in or the next one in the yard or canteen when there's a bunch of prisoners together and I don't want to check my CIs every day...

[Benzin]

Yes, CIs are cumbersome (and poorly designed to be honest). They should provide a permanent view of whats up, or maybe notify you of important stuff. But i guess its not too bad.

What do you mean about using "fill to capacity with prisoner types"? is this a mod?

[Ohm is Futile]

Nope, no mods. Here's how I have it setup. In fact, I think I can open it to all and have no issues. Either way I don't have issues with my PC being counted. The biggest issue is my max security not being built to handle full capacity. I mostly use max security for security increases due to traits and misbehaviour.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1521437655

EDIT: They might get counted if I open it to all, actually. But the way it's set up currently doesn't overflow. Intake is weird sometimes.

[Benzin]

Here is my protected area
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1521444268
The sfatt only hallway you see on the right of the canteen is just there to keep the idiotic protected inmates from getting to the other parts of the prison and getting killed.
And just like in your case, i could remove the protected only designation from the area and it would still work. (poorly designed security levels in the game).

The mixed capacity on my prison is 207, plus 8 in protected custody only. And if i set the intake to "Fill to capacity", i get sent 215 prisoners, not 207. I have to manually set number of prisoners to 207.

In your case, if you set the intake to "fill to capacity", do you get sent the total number of cells in your prison, or total number - protected capacity?

[Ohm is Futile]

I don't seem to get overflow with my PC cell capacity. Supermax isn't being counted either. That said, my actual cell blocks are also marked PC and supermax respectively.

EDIT: double-check, my med sec capacity is 200 and my max sec was filled last time I opened it and despite having more cells I'm only getting filled to medium sec capacity because it's the only area that's not filled. PC and Supermax aren't filled either and I'm not getting extra prisoners.

EDIT 2: Everything in my prison is allocated strictly.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1521453373

[Benzin]

Thats strange, so if you hover your mouse over the prisoner counter on the top, your "Maximum safe capacity" is the sum of Shared capacity + minimum capacity + normal capacity + max capacity only? your game actually excludes super max and protected?

It doesnt seem to do that for me, as you can see in the picture, max safe capacity is the sum of all capacities from all levels.

[Ohm is Futile]

Added a screenshot to my previous post. As you can see, I have everything assigned down to the last square inch.

[Benzin]

Originally posted by Ohm is Futile:

I don't seem to get overflow with my PC cell capacity. Supermax isn't being counted either. That said, my actual cell blocks are also marked PC and supermax respectively.

EDIT: double-check, my med sec capacity is 200 and my max sec was filled last time I opened it and despite having more cells I'm only getting filled to medium sec capacity because it's the only area that's not filled. PC and Supermax aren't filled either and I'm not getting extra prisoners.

EDIT 2: Everything in my prison is allocated strictly.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1521453373

Maybe it works this way for you because you dont use "mixed" areas anywhere in your prison?

[Ohm is Futile]

Possibly. Here's a screenshot with the breakdown. As you can see, the game "knows" what is the capacity for each type of prisoner.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1521454987

Why would you want your protective custody to be shared though? Isn't that a risk anyway? I'm guessing you shouldn't have to assign everything, only the cell blocks for PC and supermax. Everything else can be shared.

EDIT: You can see my max security has overflow (which is alright, I have a holding cell for max sec) because I have my punishment settings set to up security on certain offenses and I had the max sec intake set to capacity for a moment so some prisoners got "promoted" and overflowed my max sec area.

EDIT 2: Hmm, I just noticed your screenshot does say there's 8 PC cells... and your fill to capacity still overflows? Weird.

[Benzin]

I see that your min + normal + max capacity (the types the game sends you) is 240. While your total capacity is 287.
So the game will only send you Up to 240 prisoners?

WTH? then why is it that in my case if my total capacity is 215 (including 8 protected), the game will send me up to 215 instead of 207?
I can only guess its because i have mixed areas.

[Benzin]

hmm, now im doubting myself! i am 110% sure i did tried it. I set intake to fill to capacity and the game Did sent me full capacity, wich resulted in me having 8 prisoners without cells because they were not protected level. In other words, it did counted protected as part of my intake capacity.

But im gonna try it again to make double sure! i will set it intake to fill to capacity, and see if the game only sends me up to 207 or 215. Ill report back shortly...