Prisoners attempting breakouts

[blademan619]

TL:DR at bottom
Anyone have any suggestions on how to handle prisoners so they try to break out less often? I have 6 colonists and had 4 prisoners. My prison is setup with individual medical rooms and then a barracks room with recreation for when they heal up. A few days ago my 4 prisoners attempted a break out, and was quickly shot down and recaptured. One of them was pretty bad off and I tried to heal them but infection took him. Fast forward 2-3 days when they are all healed up they again attempt to break out, and again are gunned down. At this point I decided to change half the medical rooms to individual ones, so if they attempted to break out then possibly only one would be attempting versus all 3 of them. Fast forward another day or 2 and one of them goes berserk, of course gunned down again...This time she has a permanent brain injury. So thats 2 out of 4 lost in a few game days. To add salt to the injury, those 2 that I've lost had already been "buttered" up, meaning I already reduced their recruitment resistance to 0, so it was only a few attempts away. The other 2 prisoners that are left were recently captured from 2 back to back raids.

They have 2 forms of recreation (trying to get a tv for 3), I feed them fine or simple meals depending on my surplus and the room is pretty nice (tile/carpet/brick walls). The only thing I can think of to increase it further would be art statues (which my colonists dont even have) or maybe some flower pots. Does having them inside one room increase the chance of a prison break event? I wanted to let them have access to recreation without having to build a set for every individual room.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1806485084

TL:DR;
4 Prisoners living in decent accomodations, keep trying to break out, I keep losing them to injuries/infection. Any suggestions?

[flu007]

That's a much more elaborate prison setup than I ever made, heheh.

From my limited experience: always individual rooms. (but you figured that out already as well.)

Other than that, I tend to put my prison cells fairly centrally located, near areas where there's a high chance some of my colonists will be close by at all times. And when one tries to break out, I draft the nearest pawn or two and make them melee attack the prisoner rather than gun them down.
Haven't had any major trouble yet like that, but then I do tend to have only 1 or 2 prisoners at a time and significantly more than 6 colonists.

[blademan619]

Originally posted by flu007:

Yea ive been at this map for a while so Ive had plenty of time to put into making the base nice, even the prison, but I am really picky when it comes to recruiting prisoners so I only have 6 colonists at the moment. Would be 10 but Randy hates me and my prisoner recruitment goals apparently. I might have to look for a mod that changes prisoner mechanics. Really wanted to have a common rec room for my prisoners but its looking like ill have to re-design the prison area for individual rooms only.

[Astasia]

It's going to depend on whatever mods you are using related to prisons, which you should probably specify so people familiar with them can help. IE base game prisoners have no recreation stat and can't walk through any doors to get to anything. If they can somehow access and use that middle room, I don't know how that is being done or how that might possibly be changing the prison break mechanics.

Normally every single prisoner you have makes a check like every day to see if they are going to escape or not, so having 4 prisoners means you are 4 times as likely to get a prison break event as having only 1. When one of them triggers a break, every prisoner in the same room as them is included in the break event, if you have them in separate rooms then there's only a chance the other prisoners will join. So to minimize prison breaks you want to keep prisoner number low, and keep them separated, but you can never reduce it to 0% and it's always going to be a regular event to prepare for.

I think the biggest mistake you made was you used guns to deal with those prisoners. When a prison break happens involving prisoners I want to recruit, the first thing I do is start dropping weapons so I can send my colonists in with bare-hands to safely down those prisoners. Clubs/maces are also an option if you feel you need a weapon to keep the upper hand. Blunt damage doesn't cause internal damage or infections.

[RyansPlace]

I managed to tame several megaspiders and kept them confined to the prison area. They deal with anyone trying to break out.

[KalkiKrosah]

One mistake you make is not giving them tables. It's a war crime on the Rim to have eaten without a table. I thought this would be common knowledge... but a table is the bare minimum a prisoner in one of my colonies can expect.

They might also appreciate a nice statue in their cell to look at. Generally I put the ones dealing with murder, enslavement of my enemies or organ murder in their cells to really make them appreciate the accommodations I have been giving them.

Making an air vent might also help. I always put my barn in the center of my prison cells and ventilate the air flow into the barn. The barn is heated and cooled because I am not a monster but I do not provide air fresheners so the prison cells always have a faint aroma of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in them. And if they try to escape they are greeted with witnessing the dirtiest floors they have ever seen in their lives... and also the gnashing of my wolves' teeth.

Oh. And I have someone feed them every do often. They get cranky when they're hungry.

[blademan619]

Originally posted by Astasia:

The only mod I have that I am aware of affecting prisoners is Selling Prisoners With No Guilt. Other then that vanilla. The prisoners beds were to the left of the pool table, you can still see 2 of them there in the screenshot, kinda hard to see them. I moved some into individual rooms after the second break out attempt. I guess ill have to move to individual rooms then to keep them from mass break out attempts.

As for guns I tend to use range weapons to prevent any of my pawns from getting injured, and in one case there was only one pawn nearby with an assault rifle versus 4 of them, I didnt want to risk them.

Originally posted by RyansPlace:

I thought about placing turrets in there but I didnt want explosions if they destroyed it and it would have been a constant power drain.

Originally posted by KalkiKrosah:

I had a table in the main room they were all staying, didn't have any in the individual rooms yet. I would have also used a statue but I haven't started with making them yet. Also I didnt even realize I had forgotten to place the air vents, thanks for mentioning that lol

[Wolfguarde]

Make a pair of bionic legs for each prisoner. Install the legs, and then remove them. Store them in a shelf in the prisoner's room, as motivation for them to join your colony. Prisoners can't have mental breaks if they don't have leg privilege. Everybody wants leg privilege.

[blademan619]

Originally posted by Wolfguarde:

Make a pair of bionic legs for each prisoner. Install the legs, and then remove them. Store them in a shelf in the prisoner's room, as motivation for them to join your colony. Prisoners can't have mental breaks if they don't have leg privilege. Everybody wants leg privilege.

If you look past how ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up that is, youll see how perfectly that would work. Kinda like installing peg legs on any raiders who survive, then releasing them. When they come to raid again they move super slow with their peg legs.

[di eshor ribly]

As an alternative method, what I use for prisoners is two mods. Simple Slavery and Dress Patients. Dress Patients allows me to do what it's name implies, have my doctors place clothing on patients. None of them get ratty/tattered apparel. What they do get however, is an electronic slave collar (with DP i don't have to actually enslave them) that zaps them into unconsciousness when they get rowdy. When they get recruited they'll take their own collars off for a real helmet.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by blademan619:

The only mod I have that I am aware of affecting prisoners is Selling Prisoners With No Guilt. Other then that vanilla. The prisoners beds were to the left of the pool table, you can still see 2 of them there in the screenshot, kinda hard to see them. I moved some into individual rooms after the second break out attempt. I guess ill have to move to individual rooms then to keep them from mass break out attempts.

As for guns I tend to use range weapons to prevent any of my pawns from getting injured, and in one case there was only one pawn nearby with an assault rifle versus 4 of them, I didnt want to risk them.

Well then, that pool table and chess table are doing nothing for your prisoners other than adding to room score. Like I said they have no recreation stat and will not use recreation objects.

The thing with breakouts is the prisoners don't have weapons either, as long as you don't give them access to any, so if you send a single colonist in to stand in a choke point and punch away until other colonists arrive, there's minimal risk for injury. Move the door to your prison so it's much further away from the exit from your base so you have more time to react and send your guys in.

[SereneK]

Originally posted by blademan619:

My prison...individual medical rooms...barracks room with recreation...

Whoa, whoah there.
You tryin' be a good person or something?
How dare you utter "prison" and "recreation" in the same sentence.

[itssirtou]

Am I the only one whose never had a prisoner issue? The break out, they get pistol whipped 2 feet from the door and carried back inside.

1. Never get outnumbered. Unless you're trying to recruit literally any and every pawn you come across this shouldn't be an issue.

2. Build the prison in a smart place. Central, so they can't run, far away from weapons. Construct it so they only have one place to run... then secure that place.

3. Station your 'guards'. Keep night shifts and day shift pawn bedrooms nearby so you can always respond no matter when they break. Maybe keep shelves in those rooms with wooden maces. Just make sure you can get to the weapons before they can...

4. If all else fails keep wooden traps in place on the route you think they will run. They will slow them down enough you can get to them easily. Sometimes they even turn around and try to break a wall after hitting a trap which gives PLENTY of reaction time.

I've never had much of a concern with these in mind. Even when they breakout in the middle of a raid the traps are usually sufficient. Might have to switch to guns for them tho

[sparrowbird611]

Originally posted by itssirtou:

Am I the only one whose never had a prisoner issue? The break out, they get pistol whipped 2 feet from the door and carried back inside.

1. Never get outnumbered. Unless you're trying to recruit literally any and every pawn you come across this shouldn't be an issue.

2. Build the prison in a smart place. Central, so they can't run, far away from weapons. Construct it so they only have one place to run... then secure that place.

3. Station your 'guards'. Keep night shifts and day shift pawn bedrooms nearby so you can always respond no matter when they break. Maybe keep shelves in those rooms with wooden maces. Just make sure you can get to the weapons before they can...

4. If all else fails keep wooden traps in place on the route you think they will run. They will slow them down enough you can get to them easily. Sometimes they even turn around and try to break a wall after hitting a trap which gives PLENTY of reaction time.

I've never had much of a concern with these in mind. Even when they breakout in the middle of a raid the traps are usually sufficient. Might have to switch to guns for them tho

I broke rule 1 when I downloaded simple slavery. I have way too many prisoners.

[Jürgen Makokov]

cut their arms off

[LYNX Scout]

The requirements for entertainment etc (they dont need it) have been pointed out.

I tend to have a lot of prison breaks. If they're healthy, comfy, and have numbers, they will attempt breakouts. If I'm worried about converting them into colonists and don't want to murder them, I had found a mod for a tranquilizer gun and I use those. Now I *could* use those gund for most everything.. but they feel a teeny bit OP. With Cassandra and my urge for more colonists I need them though because as the softcap on colony # gets blown out of the water they die from broken toes. A couple of colonists carrying tranq guns seems to stop the insta-death, and those are all the rallied colonists who function as prison guards.

This is my current setup, though I will likely create a separate outbuilding eventually. (most of my maps I build modularly like this.) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1807182502

So its just - hospital, barracks, toilet (dubs bad hygeine is running). The only "entertainment" my prisoners get is if I'm feeling mean I'll give prisoner lovers a double bed, and the pregnancy and children mod I have on can lead to babies being born in jail.