Reducing prisoner fighting?

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Illanair
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Reducing prisoner fighting?

Postby Illanair » Thu Sep 27, 2012 4:10 pm

I've reached the point of frustration.

In all of my attempts at a sustainable prison the prisoners quickly begin having daily mass fights in the shower, canteen and yard - leaving me with expensive repairs that eat away at any possible profit I'd make.

They all seem to have weapons out of nowhere - can I counter this by making "checkpoints" with metal detectors? Are there other factors at play? I'm stumped.

If checkpoints - how do you design them (or the prison in general). My prisons have a small courtyard with offices, holding cell/medbay building and utilities (power/water), and then a middle courtyard with showers, canteen and a kitchen (walled off and staff only access) and lastly a far courtyard where I build my cell blocks and yard.
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gsuberland
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Postby gsuberland » Thu Sep 27, 2012 4:18 pm

This is mainly caused by them being unhappy. A less angry prison population causes less fights.

Some tips:

- Hire a psychologist, open up reports, and look at his tab. It'll probably give you a good idea of what they're annoyed about.
- You must create individual cells. Communal holding pens aren't designed to be permanent, and cause loads of fights.
- Forgetting to put windows in cells is a sure-fire way to piss off your inmates.
- Lack of food causes more anger and fights than anything else.
- Homesickness can be cured by putting phone booths in the yard.
- Keep an eye on what time it is. If you know they're on the way to lunch, put some guards in the canteen pre-emptively. Same for showers. Often the larger fights occur because no guards were there to sort out the initial instigators.
- If a single inmate stands still for a while, they're usually up to something. If you click on them, you'll often see "Acting suspiciously". Get a guard to search them.
- Make a decent size common room and fill it with toys. Right now, the prisoners don't tend to seem to use it, but it does increase happiness regardless.
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Postby Illanair » Thu Sep 27, 2012 4:25 pm

- Got a psych. Haven't used his tab yet though. I'll be sure to have a look.
- Got plenty of those. Around 30 in fact (2x3 tile ones with a bed, toilet and bookshelf in each one)
- Double windows in every cell.
- Plenty of food (to the best of my knowledge - any pointers on the "feed them" task?)
- Plenty of phones and press benches in the yard.
- Already tried that - I had 8 guards escort the entire population around for a day. They ended up just as beat up as before.
- I noticed this, and have searched a few crims. But a 30 man prison is hard to keep ahold of.
- Haven't tried the common room yet due to lack of funds. I'll see if I can squeeze it in.
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Postby tradami » Thu Sep 27, 2012 4:27 pm

Edit the Regime. I noticed the default one has a lot of empty time slots. I noticed that's when all the wrong doing were occuring. Change it around a bit.

Also if you look at your Needs tab you'll find out which need is not being met and you can account for it in the custom regime.
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Postby gsuberland » Thu Sep 27, 2012 4:29 pm

If the "feed them" task doesn't complete 100% every time, you need more cooks or your kitchen is saturated. Check how much stuff sits in the fridges and on the cookers before lunchtime - if everything's full you need more. If it's not full and you aren't reaching your 100% quota, hire more cooks. I usually have one per 4-5 prisoners.
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Re: Reducing prisoner fighting?

Postby DonGonzo » Thu Sep 27, 2012 5:28 pm

Illanair wrote:They all seem to have weapons out of nowhere - can I counter this by making "checkpoints" with metal detectors? Are there other factors at play? I'm stumped.


I've had success by placing the metal detectors outside of the shower room and have them shower after breakfast and after dinner, before lights out. It doesn't get rid of the rioting nature of hungry prisoners, but it does a decent job of keeping them free of weapons. Also, I'm not entirely sure this works, so don't quote me, but CCTVs may cut down on bad behavior, they tend to misbehave less when being observed.

You need a commons room, and with the absurd grant money you can get from minute one there's no reason to not have a 5x5 with some TVs in it.
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Postby lighthaze » Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:10 pm

In my experience most prisonders get their weapons from the kitchen. Double-check that they can't get there.
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Postby jaysc » Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:17 pm

I haven't had any fights yet at all, but the best advice I can give is to edit the regime until you find the perfect combo. Most of the slots are filled with "free time" as they can do whatever they want in that time other then eat.
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Postby SuperConductiveRabbi » Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:36 pm

Jesus, you guys are soft on your prisoners. Hiring psychologists? Putting WINDOWS in their cells? Feeding them??

I encourage fighting, and often lock my prisoners in cramped holding cells and lay off all my guards just to save some dough. My latest project is to try and lock each prisoner in a 1x1 solitary confinement box, with the door replaced by a concrete slab before they try to escape. If my project is successful I'll have close to zero overhead.

Why should I care if some murderer stabs a rapist with a sharpened spork? It doesn't eat into my profit margin. I'm all about the money! Capitalism, baby.
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Postby weasello » Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:42 pm

Right now TVs are only watchable by one person, so make sure you have a lot (and Big TVs are bugged and shouldn't be used). I put 8 TVs, 4 workout benches, bookshelves, telephones, benches, and 12 beds in my initial holding cell. As long as I kept the prisoners fed and bathed, they never fight or riot. My "Yard" is empty.

I also put metal detectors on every single door - I seem to catch a lot of prisoners sneaking into the kitchen and coming out with knives. I believe (could be wrong here) that a prisoner with contraband will get an automatic "search" job on them when they pass through a metal detector. I do a lot of confiscations automatically and things seem peaceful.
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Postby Inkognito » Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:46 pm

weasello wrote:I also put metal detectors on every single door - I seem to catch a lot of prisoners sneaking into the kitchen and coming out with knives. I believe (could be wrong here) that a prisoner with contraband will get an automatic "search" job on them when they pass through a metal detector. I do a lot of confiscations automatically and things seem peaceful.


Hoooow? oO
I cant place those metal detectors ON doors. Or.. maybe.. can you post a screenshot of your doors with detectors? :/ :)
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Postby weasello » Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:50 pm

Sorry, a bit confusing there :)

My layout is:

Code: Select all

WWW
  W
  WWW
  O D
  WWW
  W
WWW


Where W is a wall, O is the metal detector, and D is the door. Yes, the "tunnel" I built technically puts the door outside and not inside the foundation of the building, but it doesn't seem to have any negative effects.
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Postby Inkognito » Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:57 pm

Thank you! Will try that :D
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Postby Inkognito » Thu Sep 27, 2012 7:29 pm

HOLY SHIT! I tried it. I made an extra metal detector tunnel before the prisoners entering the canteen and hell ... 20 of 63 prisoners had a weapon. No incidents since 221 hours but I will not know what would happen if all these weapons would be used D: ... you rescued my prison man :D
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Postby Illanair » Thu Sep 27, 2012 7:33 pm

Tried everything - still fights constantly. Just can't seem to get the "recreation" bar up for my inmates. :cry:

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