[Suggestion] Music within a prison, prison dispatcher

[The Joker]

I think music should have a part to play in how a prison is run. Perhaps the option to give radios to prisoners to make them happy(maybe a recreational need) and also have the ability to have a radio/music room in your prison and play different types of music to suit different prisoner types. Maybe in the morning play smooth classical music, midday during work play some hardcore rock music, and in the evening some rap/hip hop. Different prisoners have different tastes, and some will be satisfied; others not so much. How you use the music to your advantage is just another part of PA.

Another suggestion is having a prison dispatcher to notify you of events, fights, etc.(kind of like the Combine Dispatcher from Half-Life 2) If you do not have a prison dispatcher, you will solely rely on visual cues and will not receive audio notifications of incidents or any UI information about the incident. For instance, if a fight breaks out, the prison dispatcher will notify all guardsmen of the fight, as well as you, providing audio and visual info on your UI rather than just a blue circle detailing that a guard is fighting.

Another use for the dispatcher is to initiate lockdowns and bangups. If you do not have a dispatcher to make prison-wide announcements, only staff can pass through word-of-mouth of lockdowns or bangups(leading to inefficiency and disobedient prisoners). I know that right now there are audio cues for guards when they fight with prisoners etc. and there's the blue circle notifying you, but I believe this is to be changed later on).

[Navarro]

I like the dispatcher idea. In a prison, that's called a Control Officer. They work in the Master Control Center, where all the CCTV monitors and control boards are, and where the unused keys and radios are stored. So, I'd like to add to your suggestion, and recommend that a full Control Officer be made available, who can dispatch guards as you suggest, but who can also open gates remotely if they know there's someone trying to get through who's allowed to. For instance, if they can see doctor on CCTV standing in front of a gate waiting to get through, or see a guard approaching a gate.

[hugeknight]

+1 for dispatcher because some prisoners like to gang up on some of my homies... i mean guards and i would like to see them gang up on the aggressors

[Check Six]

I think the Controller idea is a good one. I do a similar job for security work (not in prisons) where we have the ability to do just what Navarro suggests...we can observe an authorised person waiting for a door to be opened remotely. If, for instance, there was a riot on the other side, we could not open the door to protect the authorised person, or open it if it is safe to prevent having to dispatch a guard.

I don't like the idea of him being a prison "dj" though.

I have seen instances where council authorities play loud music unsuited to the tastes of the particular group of people to disperse them or discourage them from "hanging out" in a certain area. If yard time was over, the dj could play Justin Bieber or something like that, and the prisoners would be back in their cells quickly.

[Michzm]

Maybe they could bring in some bands to perform for them too... have to be careful of those guitarists though, I heard one shot a man just to watch him die!

[Check Six]

It would be hard for a band to perform in a jail ('cept maybe the Blues Brothers) because when they take their first break, there would be a mad scramble for the guitar strings. They make excellent garottes I'm told.