I Ain't Paid Enough: A Prison Architect AAR

At the time of writing, I have been the esteemed warden of Sunnyvale "Minimum" Security Prison for nine whole days. When I was approached to be put in charge of a minimum security prison, I all but jumped at the chance! After all, the prisoner grant doesn't reward based on how many people the prisoner raped or killed before passing through my gate. The grant is "$100 per prisoner" and you know what, that is fine by me. Perfectly fine. A minimum security prison? How could this be difficult?

And for a while it was good.

Until my accountant made a blunder. This blunder has plagued this prison for days now. As I write, there are two broken metal detectors. My Chief of Security informs me that the prisoners, when they left the canteen, all tried their best to go through the detector that wasn't working. The story of how they were broken all goes back to the blunder.



See, every day the State asks prisons if they can receive intake, that is, prisoners. We can't choose the size of the intake, just that there is one and the general makeup of the intake. The prisoners arrive at 8:00 AM sharp and they're escorted to their cells or holding cell and everything is supposed to be peachy.

Except that, one day, we received twenty-four prisoners. The prison only has twenty cells, four of which are solitary confinement. Until this intake arrived, we never had to use that punishment but you know what, I don't care anymore.

I was in my accountant's office, who for some reason got the view of the road, when the trucks arrived. Eight prisoners to a truck, three trucks, I thought to see a stream of twenty-four docile grey-shirt min-sec prisoners.

But I saw reds and orange: colors of maximum and normal security prisoners. We only had six open cells, meaning we had way too many angry murderers and rapists in one (rather large) holding cell mixed in with a guy whose only crime was pirating a video game.

Money is tight, and I can't turn away a grant, but damn if this hasn't all been expensive. It got to the point where the standard punishment carries a six-hour stint in lockdown or solitary. However, as I speak, the longest someone has been in solitary was thirty-six hours.

That prisoner's list of misconduct, just in the first day, included causing serious injury, destruction of prison property, attacking staff, possession of a deadly weapon, and possession of a tool. We also had one escape the next night and following a midnight shakedown, we discovered a tunnel and so much booze and cigarettes that if there was oil under this prison, I could have opened a gas station. At least that would have helped with our chronic funding issue.

Just when it seemed like things would be fine, and things would mellow out, tragedy struck a few hours ago. A single prison broke all three metal detectors. The cost to fix them is two entire days of the surplus we receive from the prisoner and federal grants.

My Chief of Security tells me that the prisoner's name was Tom Hornibrook. Two guards had to subdue the prisoner violently and throw him back into the holding cell. Tom Hornibrook didn't get himself any dinner tonight, now did he? What was I supposed to expect from a nom-sec prisoner who is here because he assaulted a police officer?



Then there is the resident psychopath Scott Stonelake. Doesn't that just scream "maximum security"? If that doesn't, the fact he's serving life for two count of causing "grievous bodily harm" should be good enough for you. Scott was the first guy to throw a punch, and because he's a big guy, it was a big punch. That was days ago and I've had him lockdowned and sent to solitary at least three times now.

What Scott didn't know was that we had fixed one of the metal detectors before dinner, so he walked through it, it went off, and what did the guards find? What else? A spoon.

God I hate spoons.



Twelve hours of lockdown and no dinner should teach him to leave spoons where they belong. I should have asked the guards to put him on 24 hour lockdown for breaking his toilet in a fit of rage sometime while I was in the city for paperwork. He broke the toilet and his cell and the cell across the hall from his was flooded. It was fixed just a few minutes ago (it is a little after ten at night now).



Anyway, that is all for tonight's entry. The prisoners are in their cells. There is still five prisoners in the holding cell, including Hornibrook. I'm not sure why he isn't on lockdown, but it might be because he doesn't have a cell for him to be locked down in yet.

All in all, today was okay I suppose. We don't have prisoners in solitary anymore at least. But if I'm going to turn this situation around and finally hire some janitors, I'm going to have to fix the prison's cash flow problem.

I'm stuck in a web. To keep the prisoners content, I need to clean the place up a bit, build another cellblock, and hire janitors. To do that, I need money. But because my prisoners aren't content, they break things, which cost money to repair. They also like trying to escape, and it costs money to destroy their tunnels.


I am going to adapt a wait and see policy and see how things go.

Signed,

Christopher Stevens

PS: Back in my day, it took for-eh-ver to tunnel your way out of prison. It seems these days that the lads can start and finish a tunnel in a night. I've hard the yellow-boys put up more fencing so they're going to have to dig a lot longer to get out. I would put a perimeter fence, but $200 per meter is just way too expensive. If only that fat Stonelake would figure out how to not get caught and just get out of my hair so someone else can take his cell.

Nice, grim start, and good storytelling. I've been curious about Prison Architect for awhile now, so I'm glad to see a story about it. Already two antagonists with nine days in, that's impressive! Looking forward to the next installment.

Quintillus said:

Nice, grim start, and good storytelling. I've been curious about Prison Architect for awhile now, so I'm glad to see a story about it. Already two antagonists with nine days in, that's impressive! Looking forward to the next installment.

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When I wrote this part, and I plan for future parts, I stopped playing right when it hit the "dead time" between dinner time and sleep because I wanted the convicts in their cells and everything more or less locked down when sleep time hits.

So, lo and behold, things got extremely stupid two hours later and the entire next day up until 10:00 PM makes $3000 in damages look tame.

Then again, I'm still learning as I go. This is my first actual prison after the tutorial (which is an awful tutorial) and a very short quick game that ended in everybody escaping the second night.

As a matter of fact, things went so badly right after I posted this that I'm convinced that I jinxed myself in some horrific way. The irony of some of the things I said actually made me laugh as the day went on.

My accountant informs me that every night, right at midnight, great globs of money move through the prison banking system. At midnight, the prison received $1,500 in the Federal Grant and another $2,200 in the Prisoner Grant. When you take away the cost of providing meals to prisoners, salaries for the administration, and wages for the guards, doctor, and the remaining workforce, it works out to about $1,600.

However, by 12:30 AM, once the great flurry of money stopped moving through the veins, the report my accountant hands me around noon told me we had only $28 in the day's fund left. A full two thousand dollars was gobbled up by the metal detectors requiring repair.

Sunnyvale began Day 10 with 22 prisoners, with one prisoner on lockdown and six prisoners in the holding cell.

I was awaken at 2:35 AM by my Chief of Security, Don Moriarty. There had been an escape.

Jay Brown tunneled his way out of his cell and into freedom. I'm sure society can deal with a convicted kidnapper roaming its streets. His escape was rather sketchy.



A little after eleven that night, an hour after my last journal entry, Jay Brown had been escorted from his cell to the medical ward to tend to injuries sustained from attacking staff. Jay Brown's list of misconduct during his brief stint in my prison was rather long and included destruction and possessing contraband.

From 2:40 to 5:10 AM, the prison was on lockdown and the guards searched every toilet, bench, bed, and prisoner in the prison.



It was an awful morning. Three forks and a spoon stolen from the canteen and two containers of an alcoholic beverage were discovered. Worse yet, four tunnels, including the tunnel Jay Brown used to escape, were discovered. Because we lacked the money to destroy the tunnels, that left us four cells short than usual. Four prisoners were sentenced to solitary confinement, with another two added to the waiting list.

One prisoner had to be violently subdued when the guards found him in the middle of tunneling out of the prison himself. I never did like Aston Hackett, and he got slapped with twelve hours lockdown, followed by twelve hours of solitary.

The guards found weapons under the benches in the holding cell, so Aston Pennington and Paul Gaskin were sentenced to twelve hours of solitary. Paul Platter was on his way to solitary with his holding cell mates but the fight in Hackett's cell meant he had to stand handcuffed in the corridor until the inmate was subdued. Miles Buttcliffe, as unfortunate a name as any I suppose, got hit with twelve hours for smuggling in beer. Adam Waterhouse received twelve hours for having family members smuggle in beer during their recent visit.

By six in the morning, we were short two prisoners. Jay Brown and Felix Cadwallader. Felix got to leave through the front gate because his sentence for DUI and vehicular manslaughter was up. That freed up a working cell, thankfully.

Finally, they found spoons on Yeniceri and King but I gave up keeping track of things for a while.

I went back to sleep around 5:30. The work crew hammering away at setting up a new fence couldn't keep me awake. I didn't get to see Paul Mead leave as his sentence expired. He, too, left behind a working cell.

Janet Hall, the prison psychologist, took over while I slept. She had two benches in the holding cell packed up and put in storage and moved the four beds from the unusable prison cells moved to the holding cell. My accountant suggested that if there is any money leftover tomorrow after destroying the tunnels, fixing the four cells Stonelake broke (oh yes, more on that later), and whatever new expense arises between now and midnight, we should keep the beds in the holding cell and buy four more beds.

But that is $800 so I'm hesitant for now, but Janet Hall says that we could have avoided a lot of problems if the holding cell had been set up with long-term containment in mind. Sleeping on benches isn't conductive for morale she tells me.

Anyway, Eades' and Gaskin's family showed up for visitation today. I don't know if Gaskin got to see his family due to being in solitary and all, but I think he did. Eades, being a good guy (as good as an inmate can be I guess), got to see his family. Some guy whose last name is Morgan got to see his father today, so I guess that was nice.

At 9:30, Paul Ansley strolled through the metal detector, sent up a red flag, and a guard found a spoon on him. The fact he managed keep a spoon hidden from this morning's shakedown on his person worries me. He was sentenced to twelve hours on lockdown.

But I'm sure, whoever you are reading my journal, is wondering what in the world did Stonelake do. Well, let me tell you a funny story.

Stonelake was in the holding cell during free time when, for whatever reason, he decided to attack the guard. It took three guards to subdue him and knock him out cold. They picked him up, put him on the bench, and twiddled their thumbs while thinking of where to put him. Finally, they decided to take him to his cell and let him rest. WHY he wasn't put under lockdown or into solitary is beyond me, but the guards forgot about him, moved Hackett to solitary, and after a talk with Don, the guards escorted him to the medical ward. All this by 10:34 AM.



After a while in medical, Stonelake woke up and was escorted back to his cell. At noon, I woke up to loud banging and from across the lot could hear Stonelake destroying things. I do not know what the guards were doing, because Stonelake was able to rampage for a full hour before being rushed on by four guards and knocked out, once again escorted to medical.

But not before destroying four toilets, four beds, really, he destroyed four cells. Since one of those cells was already unusable, he reduced our effective cell size by three all by himself.



While inspecting the damage, the guards searched the four cells and discovered cigarettes in John King's cell, requiring twelve hours of solitary. Because solitary was already full, he was placed on temporary lockdown in his cell. He couldn't sit down anywhere except the toilet because Stonelake had broken his bed. Two more prisoners, once again, Paul Platter and Miles Buttcliffe, had to be escorted to their cells during lunch time. A fork was found in Platter's holding cell, inside the toilet.



Miles isn't a violent guy, thank god. He's in here for trafficking and perjury, but three guesses to what he was doing with a spoon in his toilet and if you guessed "tunneling", you win nothing.

Then at 3:30 PM, right outside my window, I watched Stonelake waved at me. Then he ran off. I don't think I'll ever see him again. For some damnable reason, a guard let him through the mortuary into the open and because that part isn't fenced off, he just ran off. Why isn't it fenced? BECAUSE PRISONERS AREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THERE.



The next two and a half hours consisted of prisoners being searched, along with cells, because those are the rules. Someone escapes? Search everything.

Ed Eades, the prisoner who got to see his family earlier, had received a parting gift of smokes from them. Twelve hours solitary.

Buttcliffe? Pills in the toilet somehow. Twelve hours solitary.



The rest of the day was standard. Adam Waterhouse and John King would, thankfully, be out of my hair by the end of the day because their sentences expired. That leaves the prison with fifteen prisoners, twelve working cells, four solitary cells, and a refurbished holding cell.

I can't help but be hopeful. With the situation as bad as it is, things can only improve from here on out.


Signed,

Christopher Stevens

PS: It should be sixteen cells a little after midnight once we get everything with the tunnels fixed and the beds moved back.

^ Metal detectors are expensive, one is sufficient at the start (You bought three)
Too many solitary cells, solitary doors are expensive, I built them to cell standards so you can just changed them into cells and back as needed. Later on Red prisoners are assigned into cells with solitary doors and with most distance to tunnel out.

Invest in recreational equipment like phones, weights and small TVs.

Reduce the quality of your meals to save money.

Iam surprised that your prison hasnt burnt down yet with everyone dead.
So I would say your doing ok.

Three escapes already? Sounds like they made a mistake sending those orange and red shirts to your prison. Though for the prison's sake, it sounds like a good thing that Stonelake is gone. He was tearing the place apart single-handedly.

Are there negative effects in-game for escapes? Seems like it wouldn't put you on the best of terms with the authorities to have so many prisoners getting free.

FriendlyFire said:

^ Metal detectors are expensive, one is sufficient at the start (You bought three)

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I bought two originally because I had a large door and I wasn't quite sure how they worked. But then prisoners started going through the staff doors and kitchens and my guards just let them and the only way to fully stop it would have been to locking the staff doors to everyone and that seems to be missing the point of the doors entirely.

Too many solitary cells, solitary doors are expensive, I built them to cell standards so you can just changed them into cells and back as needed. Later on Red prisoners are assigned into cells with solitary doors and with most distance to tunnel out.

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I used the solitary cells as a cheap and dirty way of saving money. True, the doors are expensive, but throwing prisoners into solitary for 12-24 hours at a time saves me money...somehow.

I bought a lot of beds recently though and threw them in the holding cell. I'm doing better with money now once the...well, bad stuff happened.

Invest in recreational equipment like phones, weights and small TVs.

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Will do.

Reduce the quality of your meals to save money.

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They're already one None-Minimum.

Iam surprised that your prison hasnt burnt down yet with everyone dead.
So I would say your doing ok.

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You spoke too soon.

Quintillus said:

Three escapes already? Sounds like they made a mistake sending those orange and red shirts to your prison. Though for the prison's sake, it sounds like a good thing that Stonelake is gone. He was tearing the place apart single-handedly.

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Stonelake was hilariously destruction and even the things that happened over the next few days failed to disrupt his title.

Are there negative effects in-game for escapes? Seems like it wouldn't put you on the best of terms with the authorities to have so many prisoners getting free.

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Not really, no. I think that's planned for the future but right now, it seems that escape's only hurt your prison's valuation, and that doesn't even see to matter.

Journal of Christopher Stevens
Day 14

Have not written an entry for a few days. A recent intake of prisoners has been a mixed blessing for Sunnyvale. This time, all the prisoners were minimum security prisoners. When they arrived yesterday morning, I really did think things would be fine until the riot started.

I actually am very tired, and my psychologist, Dr. Hall, doesn’t know why the riot started either. They had been at the prison less than twenty-four hours when all hell broke loose. It started, modestly, in the yard before dinner. Paul Gaskin broke a metal detector and some harsh words were thrown out by a couple of prisoners but the situation was diffused quickly and Gaskin was sent to his cell (where we discovered an extremely long tunnel that was taken down after midnight).

Dinner went fine, I thought. All the prisoners were fed at least. But, well, when they went to the showers before bed, a fight broke out and the rest is history.

Luckily, today went fine. No escapes yet, money is fine, and the increase in disposable income for the prison has been helpful.

Here is some of the security camera stills taken during the event.

http://imgur.com/SdBIfri,0SthmfQ,srofUFr,eLrgluC,yZmRVWy,YJRxwlK

OOC: I actually played a few days since the last update. Not a lot to be said really right now other than lolriot.

Blimely, that's a bloody riot. You weren't kidding when you described it as a riot. Makes me glad I'm not in prison.

More than double capacity and $4 in the bank, I see. Sounds like a fantastic situation. Welcome to prison overcrowding I guess? Best of luck with the improved disposable income. Sounds like you'll need it.

Also why did you waste money on prison windows ? I only put them in once I am flushed with cash.You also have too many guards, though in your situation all those extra guards prevented a prison fight breaking out into a full scale riot.

Its also strange that you built your prison with wasted space and without much thought for future expansion. I think I had around 230 prisoners before I ran out of space.

FriendlyFire said:

Also why did you waste money on prison windows ? I only put them in once I am flushed with cash.You also have too many guards, though in your situation all those extra guards prevented a prison fight breaking out into a full scale riot.

Its also strange that you built your prison with wasted space and without much thought for future expansion. I think I had around 230 prisoners before I ran out of space.

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Probably because it's his first real game. I wouldn't expect anyone to be playing optimally in their first game of anything. That's part of the fun - figuring out what works and what blows up in your face!

Quintillus said:

Probably because it's his first real game. I wouldn't expect anyone to be playing optimally in their first game of anything. That's part of the fun - figuring out what works and what blows up in your face!

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Normally it only takes one or two mistakes before the prison is completely broken and you have to restart. Which is why I am surprised that the prison hasnt burnt down and everyone is dead. (The Yogscast managed that within the first 30mins )

Really though lack of money = lack of ability to build, demolish, expand and experiment makes for a slow game.

Just providing some of the most basic tips.
Feel free to ignore and do some crazy entertaining stuff.

FriendlyFire said:

Also why did you waste money on prison windows ? I only put them in once I am flushed with cash.You also have too many guards, though in your situation all those extra guards prevented a prison fight breaking out into a full scale riot.

Its also strange that you built your prison with wasted space and without much thought for future expansion. I think I had around 230 prisoners before I ran out of space.

Click to expand...

Quintillus said:

Probably because it's his first real game. I wouldn't expect anyone to be playing optimally in their first game of anything. That's part of the fun - figuring out what works and what blows up in your face!

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FriendlyFire said:

Normally it only takes one or two mistakes before the prison is completely broken and you have to restart. Which is why I am surprised that the prison hasnt burnt down and everyone is dead. (The Yogscast managed that within the first 30mins

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Basically what Quintillus said. I subscribe to the Dorf Fort Theory of Losing is !!Fun!!.

I think the only thing keeping my prison from burning down is my use of Free Time to keep the prisoners calm. They typically take care of their needs all on their own except for food, clothing, and a few other needs that aren't so important. The only time I run into massive problems is when prisoner intake happens. It is like they arrived pissed off at everything and everybody.

As for the windows, I'd admit that was an aesthetic choice more than anything. I'm still trying to get use to the foundation system and figure out how to expand the foundation for buildings without tearing down existing walls. That's what ended my first test game, because half my prisoners escaped and I figured "eh, better luck next time".

Sonereal said:

I'm still trying to get use to the foundation system and figure out how to expand the foundation for buildings without tearing down existing walls. That's what ended my first test game, because half my prisoners escaped and I figured "eh, better luck next time".

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Just build the next building block without any doors, wait the the extension to be completed and secure, before breaking down the walls.

I feel like having another go, I have an idea to see if I can fit 500 prisoners into the one prison. The last 100 or so prisoners are going to be packed like sardines in a holding cell with only the one toilet.

Sonereal said:

It is like they arrived pissed off at everything and everybody.

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I'd probably be in a sour mood if I'd just been transported to a prison, too. Even if it was your prison. Or maybe especially if it were your prison, if I'd heard of the recent riot!

I got it, my first three prisons kept having escapes because I didn't understand the pathing at all. Now I've got a big 80 cell one, finished a ton of grants. I still can't figure out how to get my guards tazer certified (have the armor and class open) or get the prisoners to pass basic ed (they are going to the class but no one seems to be passing). But the game is getting pretty boring. I mean if you build it right it's really easy to stop escapes (have multiple doors and barriers to any exits with armed patrols) and quell riots (again the multiple doors and eating areas so no ones jammed together, plenty of patrols). Not finding this very challenging. At first trying to complete grants was like an objective to shoot for but now it's kind of boring. This definitely feels like a freeplay mode of what should be a much larger game.

It is fairly bug free. The bugs are more like design flaws than game breaking bugs like a prisoner goes the long way to get to a room or something. So it is quite fun but for me I got bored after 4-5 hours. I wouldn't recommend you get it at the current price. Maybe on sale but best sale I've seen is $10, still kind of a lot for this amount of content. I got it in a humble bundle for like $4 extra so it was well worth it to me. If they add a campaign with like 20 missions or something this could be a really sweet game.

1) I told you not to play sandbox mode and wait for the campaign
2) Time to do crazy stuff like jamming 100 prisoners into a common holding area with one toilet. Or have super claustrophobic prison where prisoners are packed like sardines.
3) Starve the prisoners is always fun
4) You could try and have only 1 guard for the entire prison

Well yeah I agree, game isn't ready yet for the price they are asking, but like I said, humble bundle for me so it worked out fine.