Yard time?

[Noteak]

Is there a reason for having a specific hour just for the yard. I have noticed that when I set an hour to the yard most of them just crowd around the exit and even start riots (even if there is low danger), and having freetime let's those who want to work out, work out, and others can work on other needs. I guess I just don't see any benifit to having yard instead of freetime. Am I missing something?

[Rogue]

They apparently have a need not being dealt with. I suggest putting toilets and a few phones in the yard.

[Emmote]

The way I design my prisons, definitely.

I surround my Canteen with a Yard, about 5 tiles wide. I set 1 hour Yard, 1 hour Eat, in that order. This means prisoners have to go to the yard, sometimes getting exercise, sometimes having a shower/toilet, and then when it's Eat time, they barely have to walk anywhere to get there.

If you don't do this, you can get some really long walk times, especially on huge maps, to get to Eat time, and often they'll miss it, and so you have to assign an extra hour just to cope with the late arrivals.

As I said before, about shower/toilet. It's best to put Phones, Weight Benches, Toilets and Showers in the Yard if you have yard time so you can get as many needs done as possible. Though, like I said, I primarily use Yard to give them closer proximity to the canteen.

It also boosts your prisons Health score if they do exercise which lowers your reoffending rate.

[Noteak]

Well I guess that is a better set up than what I have now, I don't look too much at my reoffending rate (currently 28% with 295 prisoners) but I just have a common room with most of my entertainment, including phones, bookshelves, etc. With my showers right outside my cells and just have people use freetime. I know freetime can increase reoffending rate but with no riots and never getting close to medium danger I just don't see why I should move most of the items in my common room to my yard and have the inmates use the yard for an hour.
Edit: and yes Emmote I do see how a yard hour is effective in your situation.

[Bamwich]

Another nod to Yard/Eat. There are few location-dependent commands, but they are very useful. I also use Shower/Lockup to wake my prisoners and deal with hygiene, recreation, and bathroom needs to get the day started.

[Emmote]

Originally posted by Noteak:

I just don't see why I should move most of the items in my common room to my yard and have the inmates use the yard for an hour

Well, you don't have to move items from the common room to the Yard. Just add more.

It's all about efficiency. My cells have a toilet, shower, TV and Bookcase. My Yard has phones, weight benches, toilets and showers, my common room has tv's, pool tables, weight benches and lots of chairs for reform program. My canteen has toilets, showers, tv's, phones and weight benches too.

The more your prisoners can do from wherever they are, the better.

But yeah, if you're running a smallish prison, the Yard time certainly isn't as useful because they can get exercise from the weight benches and they can be anywhere.
But large prisons, Yard->Eat is almost required.

[Hooch]

Originally posted by Emmote:

It's all about efficiency. My cells have a toilet, shower, TV and Bookcase.

Really? Each cell has that? Or each cell block?

I never considered adding that much to an individual cell due to budget and space restrictions.

Can you have more than 1 inmate in a cell?

My canteen has toilets, showers, tv's, phones and weight benches too.

Right in the dining area or do you have them walled off?

[Bamwich]

One inmate per cell. I do TVs in each cell. The extra $200 guarantees that I never have to worry about Recreation need. No bookcases for me since they aren't function yet, but they could end up as a lower cost fix.

[[Jinx]]

An hour in the yard is part of jail mandatory protocol, Prisoners get one hour of rec and one hour and gym a day. But most provinces/ state owned jails can not afford the extra staff so it is limited down to only an hour, never more, never on holidays, and remand centers just put "bikes" or tread mills on the "unit" to substitue.

[[BRE] Vauquelin]

The yard is the same as common room but when prisoners have freetime they can go everywhere they want but when it's yard time they all go into the yard so you have all prisoners at one place

[Emmote]

Originally posted by Aionion:

Really? Each cell has that? Or each cell block?

Yes, every single cell has those items. Including the bed it takes up every tile of the cell at minimum size.

Originally posted by Aionion:

Right in the dining area or do you have them walled off?

Always off to the side a little, but it's still inside the Canteen "zone", so that they can use the facilities if they don't want to Eat during Eat time.

[Poetricks]

When putting toilet to yard, does it somehow need to be private or can it just be placed anywhere in the outside yard?

[MASTAXPLODER]

I like to use the yard as an area to herd prisoners together before they eat/sleep or whatever.

[Emmote]

Originally posted by Poetricks777:

When putting toilet to yard, does it somehow need to be private or can it just be placed anywhere in the outside yard?

You can put toilets wherever you want and they'll use it.