(suggestion) Cell allocation

[sinclajs]

How feasible would it be to have manual cell allocation? When a prisoner is brought into the prison, could they are placed in the holding cell, where they await processing. The player could then fully review the prisoner and allocate their cell. Given the new prisoner risks factors this would give more control to the player as to who goes where and the risk posed to them by other prisoners.

[xPyr0x]

That's a good idea, Make the incoming prisoners sit in holding cell for 6-12 hours, so you can search them and manually assign if needed, and if no action has been taken, then let them out of the holding cell into normal locations. It shouldn't be any harder than having them sit at delivery's until a guard grabs them I wouldn't think. Obviously if you've ever been locked up before, even jail, you might not get cavity searched, but your gonna be searched and all your stuff searched upon entry. One of the reasons I constantly spam the search cell button on the kitchen and deliverys, loads of contraband in every truck incoming, not just prisoners.

[zbyrne]

Hear hear, I've been hoping for a big overhaul of processing of new arrivals. and I've never seen the holding cell as an overflow cell. to me, that should be a general population room or something. the holding cell is where new inmates sit whilst their allocation happens. there could be orientation as well, explaining the rules of prison etc that new prisoners need to go to at some point.

[Pegasus2]

I really like this idea.

Engages the player more with their prisoners.

[blipadouzi]

Definitely something that is missing from the game.

Something that has been requested for a long time is a separate receiving area for prisoners, and I feel this would implement that well.

Add a new room, Intake, have the prisoners sent here and auto searched, just as a standard initial procedure.

From here they get sent to the Holding Cell (already exists), waiting for the player to assign them a cell.
-This would also give the player a chance to view any known reputation and modify the prisoners security level.

In case the player gets busy, there can be a simple reminder in the To-Do list "X prisoners awaiting triage"

[ble210]

I like the idea of an intake area. If you'd like to get realistic, the intake area would be where the new prisoners check their civilian clothing, and are given their prisoner uniforms.

You could also have the intake be where released prisoners checkout, and get back their old clothing. Getting off topic a bit, it would also be cool to see a summary of a prisoners experiences when they check out (length of stay, education received, likelihood of re-offending, etc.).

[dooferorg]

Nice idea.. I like it!

Having them processed in an orderly manner would help with the 'rush' that happens when all the guards take off to escort them to cells, often going a fair way from the front entrance for each prisoner.

[5hifty]

Yep could definitely see something like this being very handy. As if is at the moment I try and mark all the cells that I have available as Staff Only right before prisoner arrival, so that the guards will move them from the front lawn to my nearby holding cell (now the only 'space' they see in the prison because of Staff Only) so I can start satisfying their needs. This way, I don't end up with a bunch of ticking time bombs in the form of the last few prisoners, just waiting to be delivered to their cells, all pissed, and have their cuff taken off. Once they are all inside the wire and out of the holding cell on some other regime time, I allow the new cell block and the guards will move them over.

[Vincenzo_667]

+1
I've been waiting for the devs to add this option since approx. alpha 13, imho it should've been added right after introducing different prisoner types. It has infinite potential uses, starting with the ability to manually put troublemakers in a more guarded cellblock, or actually making a completely isolated cell for the newly introduced legendary prisoners, putting notorious tunnel diggers in cellblocks located further from the complex wall, moving prisoners closer to the source of satisfing their needs, or simply handling troublemakers individually depending on their notorious behaviours (like - hey, this guy has a high FAMILY need, let's put him to a cell closer to the Visting room, so that he doesn't need to walk from one end of the prison complex to the other everytime his mom comes to visit, hey - this guy has a high comfort and recreation needs, let's put him in a cell right next to the common room, hey - this guy is a notorious vandal, breaking stuff all the time, let's put him on a cell with nothing but the basic requirements in it, or hey, this guy is a notorious brawler, let's move him to a cell closer to the medical wing, so that he's not critically injured all the time, and so on...), ending with fun stuff like putting your prisoner self in a cell that is more luxurious than the warden's office just for the fun of it. ^^ This is the kind of micromanagement that the game is missing right now.

[Vincenzo_667]

I would actually be ok with just the option of manually moving prioners to a cell of my own choosing, the holding cell and processing thing is not something I consider necessary, allthough I have no problem with the idea.

[blipadouzi]

I would actually be ok with just the option of manually moving prioners to a cell of my own choosing, the holding cell and processing thing is not something I consider necessary, allthough I have no problem with the idea.

Well, the Holding Cell is an absolute necessity in this case, otherwise the prisoners would just sit out on the front lawn until the player was ready to assign them a cell, and they'd go berserk from lack of met needs.

The other things was just an NB I threw in there

[Vincenzo_667]

I would actually be ok with just the option of manually moving prioners to a cell of my own choosing, the holding cell and processing thing is not something I consider necessary, allthough I have no problem with the idea.

Well, the Holding Cell is an absolute necessity in this case, otherwise the prisoners would just sit out on the front lawn until the player was ready to assign them a cell, and they'd go berserk from lack of met needs.

The other things was just an NB I threw in there

What I meant was that I'd be ok with the prisoners being allocated to a random cell after being admitted (just like it works now), if I'd actually have the option to reassign them from one cell to another one of my own choosing anytime later on.

[5hifty]

Well you currently can 'assigned a prisoner to a cell'. Click on the prisoner, then click on the cell. That cell is now his, and he will be escorted to it.

[Vincenzo_667]

Well you currently can 'assigned a prisoner to a cell'. Click on the prisoner, then click on the cell. That cell is now his, and he will be escorted to it.

lol, are you serious? How the hell did I miss this?
I mean I know that I can escort prisoners to a designated area by highlighting them and right-clicking, I didn't realize that I could use this to assign them to a specific cell though! But what happens if the cell is allready occupied by someone else? Will the previous 'owner' of the cell be moved to a different random cell or will it just not work then? Anyway, need to test this right away, thx for the info, I feel really stupid for not knowing this until now.
/EDIT: yup, it really works. I had no idea about this. *self-directed facepalm*

[5hifty]

But what happens if the cell is allready occupied by someone else? Will the previous 'owner' of the cell be moved to a different random cell or will it just not work then?

Previous occupant will be escorted to another cell. Tho I think they might be allocated to a holding cell first sometimes.