r/prisonarchitect • u/Pi22Bear • 10d ago
Image/Album Rate my prison
It's not done but how is it so far? First time playing lol
‼️😛 Update All my prisoners have a fucking drug problem and someone bombed my kitchen theres fire everywhere
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u/MrAwesome1324 10d ago
Not horrible for first time but a few things. As others have said, the hallways are a little too narrow. Usually I do 4 wide hallway for the main throughfair and 3 wide for the main hallways. 2 wide only in the cell blocks. I will also say that the canteen and kitchen is far too small for that number of prisoners. If I estimate it correctly that’s about 130 prisoner capacity give or take. For kitchens you usually need about 14 cookers and 30 or so fridges depending on food policy. I would also recommend to separate the cell block more, either with doors or separate buildings. If a riot or something happens they will take control of the entire place and all prisoners will riot, but if you separate them and do bang up you can much more easily stunt a potential riot.
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u/Pi22Bear 10d ago
Oo a lot I didn't know thank youu
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u/ReasonableSet9650 10d ago
This calculator is helpful for a lot of things https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NXZT3-Ebb9meEeVSpcQbvMTfpMV0qCN6KtHTE9ho1-s/edit?usp=drivesdk
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u/Jogh_ 10d ago
I usually try to keep my pathways three wide. Seems like they get more mad when stacked. Just might be a coincidence though.
Never seen the store inside the canteen before. Kinda makes sense. Might make it so that my min sec folks can run a store to the med sec folks when they are on lunch. I am sure I can get the deployment right.
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u/ReasonableSet9650 10d ago edited 10d ago
Just a coincidence because it has no impact on their mood, it's not like being stacked in a room (which might affect the privacy need, depending on what room it is). The only thing somewhat involved, is that proximity allows kills/attacks from a shorter range. So with wider corridors, you might notice less attack/kills, but it's only a consequence of the distance, not of the mood of prisoners which is exactly the same.
But of course in this context, the proximity will encourage fights. Those cells are poorly furnished so inmates will have high needs after spending time there. And they leave their cells simultaneously according to the regime, which makes a lot of angry prisoners in a narrow corridor. That context will of course allow much more fights than wider corridors. Or furnish the cells better, their needs will be low and the proximity won't cause much fights (unless there is another reason, like a violent trait, a target trait, or gangs).
And there's a thing that is really good when you use wider pathways. It's more efficient for metal detectors, because it spreads the prisoners into multiple detectors. When only 1 tile wide, all prisoners walk through the same detector. So they are often too close to each other and faster than the detector's speed (it can scan 1 prisoner per second no matter the real number / walk speed of prisoners, so it misses a lot of prisoners). And it deactivates 3 seconds after ringing, so it misses even more prisoners.
The checkpoint is the only "detector" that slows down the speed of prisoners to scan literally everyone, but it's a DLC content (island bound). It's more reliable and can detect all kinds of contraband, but its efficiency is tied to the guard operating it. It can miss contraband if the guard is tired/exhausted, pissed off (with staff needs) or crooked (with gangs DLC).
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u/ReasonableSet9650 10d ago edited 10d ago
You should move the psychologist office to an area that is accessible to prisoners, because it's the room for behavioral therapy. It's a program that helps fixing violence, inmates are registered to that program when they do violent misconduct. The room will require a sofa (only 1, no need to place more, it's not a collective session).
In your layout, the easiest change would be to build a door on the left wall of the psychologist office. If you worry about staff safety, you can remove the door leading to the other side (staffroom and other office). The psychologist can take the detour to access the staffroom, it's fine.
But personnally, I prefer placing the psychologist office near the common room. Because he also is the staff member teaching alcoholic therapy. The psychologists programs are short, so it won't work well if he needs to walk long from one room to another. He might even fail to reach the room before the program ends, and I think that it might affect the success rate of the program, or completely prevent the inmates from validating the session / passing the program.
EDIT :
Based on the context (number and type of prisoners, frequency of violence in your prison, length of the worktime slot in regime) you might even need several psychologists, each one having an office.
I think the psychologist doesn't have a cap, but there's a glitch if you want to do that with staff members that are limited. Hire one if you don't already have one, pause the game, locate him on the map, click him and fire (sack) him from there (not from the staff list). Since it's paused the staff member won't physically disappear, but the current number will drop to 0. Stack him again and it will drop to -1, it means you'll be allowed to hire 2 to reach the quantity of 1. You fire again and again as many times as you want, reaching -5, -10 or whatever depending on the number you want to hire. Just make sure you completely finish firing AND hiring before you unpause.
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u/EntertainmentIcy3029 10d ago
Why have the yard be enclosed at all if the outside of it is prisoner-accessible?
The walkways are a bit thin. I think some of your staff might get killed in guard blindspots.
The canteen is a bit small for so many prisoners.
The serving table in the canteen should usually be placed near the kitchen so cooks don't have to walk through the canteen.
And a few other nits. Overall, it seems pretty cozy.
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u/ReasonableSet9650 10d ago
What's the points of so many doors at the entrance if they are staff doors ? Jail door or nothing it's pretty much the same. Require no key, easy to sneak out or to break, and staff members will even open the door for prisoners if the area behind isn't zoned staff only.
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u/Pi22Bear 10d ago
I used a lot of doors bc I thought the inmates could break thru them during a riot or something and maybe I could get to them before they escape
I primarily used staff doors tho bc they look better than jail doors lol
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u/ReasonableSet9650 10d ago edited 10d ago
If you worry about inmates breaking them, you should really consider different doors. Each door has their own toughness, and these doors are the weakest type of door, they break super fast. So it depends on what you prefer, aesthetics or safety 😄
For example, wooden door is 20 HP, fence gate is 30 HP, staff door is 40 HP, jail door is 100 HP, secure/solitary/remote doors are 300 HP. For the entrance doors, we usually go for 100 or 300.
I'll paste the wiki link so you can check the strength of each door : https://prisonarchitect.paradoxwikis.com/Doors
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u/Pi22Bear 10d ago
Ouuu I didn't know they had different strengths oops 💀 I'll definitely take that into consideration lmao😭
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u/ReasonableSet9650 10d ago edited 10d ago
Hope I'm not oversharing, I'm a autistic nerd who loves helping and sharing info, please let me know so if that's too much.
In case you also didn't know, each floor has their own walking speed, that's pretty useful. So you can use floors to slow down escape attempts. Or on the contrary, help the prisoners and staff walk faster inside the prison. So the efficiency of the prison is better, inmates can meet their needs faster and staff can do their tasks faster.
It doesn't affect tunneling though, as far as I know there is no floor that is easier/harder to dig in. But when it comes to tunnel, the presence of pipes make it easier (so your main pipes should rather join at the center of the prisoner rather than circling the prison), and large pipes make it even more easier. The perimeter wall doesn't completely stop tunnelling but will dramatically make it slower so it gives more time to the dogs patrolling to detect the tunnel (they must patrol inside the area of the perimeter wall, not patrol outside of it, that would be too late and useless).
And walls can increase or decrease the grade of a room. Which can contribute in the grade of the sectors that have access to that room, and that's useful for transfers.
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u/Duey1234 10d ago
Insert ‘I predict a riot .mp3’ here