Prison Buses

[Xenomorph Kitty]

So I'm a little confused with prison buses. I basically made a test town to try out the new police mechanics and it seems simple enough.

Although the courthouse has vehicle bays out the front but never seems to have anything delivered, not even people expecting a trial, are these spaces for regular buses to deliver workers as the court house takes so many?

But one thing I can't figure out is the prison buses. I know they can only be purchased in the vehicle depot. But setting up a route for them just makes them go back and forth from the prison to the work place, and it never actually picked up any prisoners. I had about eight in the prison at the time but none of them ever went on the bus to the heating plant I'd told it to drop them off at.

And no, the heating plant had space for them, it wasn't full of workers already. So I'm a little confused as to the point of the buses? Are they needed? Or is it better to just leave prisoners in prison and forget about the buses altogether?

[MrKrabs]

Criminals will spawn into the jail. So one Courthouse for the whole map can be enough.
The inmates of the jail can be brought to work with those prison buses. They need to be delivered directly into the site, not to a bus station.
The inmates at my map work at a cement plant, chemical plant and at a woodcutter.

[Stele]

Prisoners have 8h workday like free person and can be pick up for works only in that timeframe. It's indicated by pop icon with shovel. When there were just eight of them, none might be in that timeframe. They are usefull if you have some workers intensive factory or mine nearby, but you have to have at least 3x bus capacity of prisoners, so it won't run empty most of the time, and destination can't be topped out by free workers. You can send bus to drop to several places in line, hoping that some of them will have free spaces.
Prisoners are relativly productive, more than unhappy free person.

[YouTuber Daniddr1]

since, the prisoners work as "punishment" should have some extra that is more worthwhile to use them as labor, for example, that instead of 8 hours of work like normal people, for tubierna perhaps 10 or 12 hours of work or yield more than anyone else, so it would give more temptation to use prisoners as labor ...

[melkij]

Originally posted by Venom Gaming:

to the heating plant

Try some unimportant production, clothes factory or mines for example. prisoners cannot work in some of the industries. The bus should not allow you to choose such a building for the route at all, but there may be a mistake. During the beta test, I asked why the prisoners do not go to work. It was because I tried to send them to the car factory. Surely power plants and heating plants also do not accept prisoners.

[Vimes]

I have prisoners working in a power plant and have also had them working in a heating plant.
If I think on I try and build prisons within a reasonable distance to factories or other workplaces I would like them to work in. They are good as "top up" employees, to keep power plants etc working if other worker transport becomes disrupted. You do not want a power plant or heating plant to shut down, but I seem to have a regular source of labour within prisons.

Mines are also useful for me, for prisoner working. Even if it is only for a "role play" feeling of them needing to physically work hard.

[Stele]

Heating plants does. It's supposed to be fixed. All vehicle factories refuses prison buses now.

[polcorp]

Originally posted by MrKrabs:

Criminals will spawn into the jail. So one Courthouse for the whole map can be enough.
The inmates of the jail can be brought to work with those prison buses. They need to be delivered directly into the site, not to a bus station.
The inmates at my map work at a cement plant, chemical plant and at a woodcutter.

So please, my friend, explain to me how you do it?
I have the same problem as Venom Gaming.

Very dear friend Mr. Krabs, you had replied to a subject that I had created. I know by this subject and thanks to you that it is necessary to create a bus in a bus depot, then to create a line which goes from the prison to a place of work.
In my prison, I have between 10 and 15 inmates. I send 2 minibuses to take my prisoners to work at the cement factory and in a food factory... but nothing happens.
The 2 mini-buses remain empty.
They arrive at the prison, go to the production centers (not to the bus stops near these construction sites), but they remain empty.

So I ask myself a question: what am I doing wrong?
Or do you need a long prison term to bring prisoners to the construction sites (and since I don't have a serious sentence...I don't have any prisoners available to work)?

But that would be absurd, because prisoners can work regardless of the length of their prison sentence.
In France ("land of Human Rights" as they say), the work of prisoners is totally exempt from the Labor Code, and prisoners work for "nothing"... which makes many companies happy (sale mail order, factories, etc.)

REEDIT - Clarification:
On my current map, I have 2 cities so two prisons. A vanilla prison (the one I'm talking about, city 1), a Workshop prison (currently with 20 prisoners, city 2).
In City 2, mini-buses were scheduled to bring in prisoners who had to work in concrete and asphalt factories.
I am French, and in France, we built prisons everywhere (in the 60s), hence 2 prisons with 2 cities :-D
My buses are going to the prison (bus1-prison city1-factory city1, bus 2-prison city2-factory city2), but no bus is loading prisoners.

[esbenmf]

If you only have around 20 prisoners and one bus, you might just be unlucky with pick-ups. Prisoners only work for 8 hours (like all workers), so maybe the bus just doesn't arrive when they are available for pick-up.
If you made a normal bus line for only 20 workers, the bus would be empty most of the time too, as there would seldom be any worker available for pick-up.

[polcorp]

Originally posted by esbenmf:

If you only have around 20 prisoners and one bus, you might just be unlucky with pick-ups. Prisoners only work for 8 hours (like all workers), so maybe the bus just doesn't arrive when they are available for pick-up.
If you made a normal bus line for only 20 workers, the bus would be empty most of the time too, as there would seldom be any worker available for pick-up.

These are mini-buses (so 5-7 people). The mini-buses are very fast, they have quick rotations, and outside the prisons they work perfectly (eg with power station).
But your comment reminds me of something I forgot.
It is to watch (follow) what is the day of a prisoner.
As much as I watch a citizen's day here or there, to make sure everything is fine... and as much as I forgot to do so for a prisoner.
Like what, social conditioning is not always easy to counter.

[Elessar_warrior]

You guys need to think the prison as if were a residential building.
Imagine you have a 100 capacity residential.
Only 33 are on work time at any given time.
Some may not pick the bus in time.
You may get like 20 workers out of 100 prisoners.

[MrKrabs]

Today after work I will create a few screen shots and explain my setup.
I want to check it anyway. I have two prisons. One vanilla and one bigger one. They both have app. 100 inmates.
Be patient my friend. 😊

[MrKrabs]

I made a couple of screen shots. I have more inmates than I thought. I guess I need to find more work for them.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2780768608

Please check the other pictures at the screen shots folder.

[polcorp]

Originally posted by esbenmf:

If you only have around 20 prisoners and one bus, you might just be unlucky with pick-ups. Prisoners only work for 8 hours (like all workers), so maybe the bus just doesn't arrive when they are available for pick-up.
If you made a normal bus line for only 20 workers, the bus would be empty most of the time too, as there would seldom be any worker available for pick-up.

Originally posted by Elessar_warrior:

You guys need to think the prison as if were a residential building.
Imagine you have a 100 capacity residential.
Only 33 are on work time at any given time.
Some may not pick the bus in time.
You may get like 20 workers out of 100 prisoners.

Originally posted by MrKrabs:

I made a couple of screen shots. I have more inmates than I thought. I guess I need to find more work for them.
Please check the other pictures at the screen shots folder.

Thanks a lot guys!
Thank you friend Mr. Krabs: thanks to your screenshots, I see that what I am doing is not wrong.

It is indeed a problem of lack of prisoners. And indeed, the minibuses circulate, but none of the prisoners are "available" when the minibuses pass.
Thank you very much also for pointing out the similarity to an apartment building.
I'm totally stupid, I didn't think of that

[MrKrabs]

You´re not stupid.
The opposite is the case.

You seen a problem or something questionable,
You tried to figure out what it could be,
As you couldn´t find out you made your problem public by asking here.

I don´t see anything stupid in that. I also learned something. I didn´t have in mind that the inmates are not available for work all the time.

And when it comes to thinks that the one or the other of us have done wrong already.
I guess this deserves an own thread. 😀
Just yesterday I was wondering why I´m exporting crops. I didn´t want to, but I did.
My mistake.

Anyway....

Kind regards.

[thegrandmystic]

Once you get a larger prison population and get a couple minibuses going, you'll eventually start picking some up for work, but yeah it takes a bit of time for the justice system to do its work.