Using my experience, I'd like to offer some insight into possible new dimensions for the game.
Change "Guard" to "Correction Officer." We are Correction Officers. We are not guards. We go through a Corrections Academy to be able to work in the jail/prison. The word "guard" sounds uneducated. The people you see in uniform at your local mall are guards. We are trained professionals. Many CO's will be offended if you call them a guard.
The hub of the entire facility is "Central Control." This is where all doors can be opened, all cameras monitored.
IMAGE
http://i.imgur.com/xBtbnzn.jpg
Inmates do not enter a prison through the front door, nor do they come on a flatbed truck. Nor do they come at 8AM. They come in police cruisers or police transport vans, and they come at all hours. One or two every hour or so, bigger groups on the weekends.
IMAGE - This doesn't happen!
http://i.imgur.com/AQuP3Wv.jpg
The cruiser/police van enters the secure perimeter through double gates. They don't go to a "holding cell," they go to "Classification," where they stay in a room that looks like a gym with multiple bunks organized in rows.
IMAGE
http://i.imgur.com/E1F80xE.jpg
A huge issue I have is the way "solitary" works. First of all, I don't know of any modern prison/jail that still uses the term "solitary." The terms "Administrative Segregation" (I will refer to this as "Seg") or "Special Management Unit" are what is used today. Also, inmates who assault staff or other inmates don't go to Seg for a few hours, they go for 10, 20, or 30 days. They are locked up for 23 hours a day, and get 1 hour of recreation in a "recreation pen" which is just a large cage outside. One inmate per cage, 2-3 inmates at a time. They can choose to have a shower or not. There are multiple wings to Seg. And usually they're all full.
IMAGE (Rec pens at the end of the unit)
http://i.imgur.com/iTwiiOv.jpg
Inmates who are in trouble for disobeying orders or vandalism, pretty much anything excluding assaults, can be locked down to their cells for up to 3 days.
The place where inmates eat is referred to as the "Chowhall," not "Canteen." Where the food is made is referred to as the "Cookhouse," not "Kitchen." As there are inmates who are in Seg or lockdown and can't leave to eat in the chowhall, inmate kitchen workers use meal carts to deliver meals to the Seg units where the inmates eat in their cells, and the trays are collected and brought back.
Cells do not always house just one inmate. In a regular housing unit, there are usually two inmates to a cell, which is why Prison Architect needs to implement bunk beds.
Prisons/Jails are not single story. There are usually at least two tiers, sometimes three, in a unit. Prison Architect needs to implement multiple floors or levels.
In the lower security wings, there are between 8-16 inmates in very large cells. There are no toilets in these cells. These units have group bathrooms/showers.
IMAGE
http://i.imgur.com/lYA9bIt.jpg
These large units usually share the same rec yard to keep same security level inmates together.
IMAGE
http://i.imgur.com/F34WWvP.jpg
We don't have a "Medical" unit, we call it the "Health Services Unit." There are 2-3 large cells with multiple bunks for sick inmates to live for a few days until better. There are also individual cells for those with contagious diseases like lice and scabies. Also inmates on a suicide watch are in individual cells, and are watched 24/7 by a correction officer, called an "eyeball watch."
IMAGE
http://i.imgur.com/91B8x9c.jpg
Prisons/Jails have a Chapel that caters to all religions. Prison Architect should implement a new room, the Chapel, and a new character, the Minister.
My facility has no-contact visits. Inmate on one side of a window, visitor on the other side.
IMAGE
http://i.imgur.com/Qx5puk3.jpg
The housing units surround the "courtyard."
IMAGEs
http://i.imgur.com/zVMTv9e.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/zSStIU3.jpg
-Also, many inmates get medications during "med pass," where a nurse comes down to the unit with a med-cart and passes out meds one inmate at a time.
-Some inmates get insulin 3 times a day by the nurse.
-There are handicapped cells for inmates with disabilities or in wheelchairs.
-All inmates eat with plastic utensils.
-All inmates are subject to a pat-down search after chow.
-All new inmates to the prison are strip-searched.
-All inmates are strip searched after visitation.
-All cells are inspected (not searched, just a brief walk-through) by a correction officer each day.
Inmates try to make their own alcoholic beverage called "homebrew" in the waste bins in their cells using food smuggled from the chowhall.
-Workers earn good-time that takes time off their sentence. However if they get in trouble they lose some of it.
-Gangs are alive in prisons, and care must be made that members from opposite gangs aren't in the same unit.
There are usually 2-3 officers per unit of 80-126 inmates. One control officer who works the control board for that unit, and the others who work the unit, walking around.
When an officer is assaulted, everyone knows because they, or the control officer, will call a code red (or black), and officers from the other units will rush in to help.
I know a sensitive issue is whether or not to implement prison rape. I think it could be tactfully implemented by referring to it as a "PREA Complaint." PREA is the Prison Rape Elimination Act here in the USA. The aggressor is immediately sent to Seg pending an investigation, and the assaulted inmate is sent to a medical cell. Instead of using the word rape in-game, just using the acronym PREA would work well.
Prison Architect should implement another administrative character. "Internal Affairs", or the "Special Investigations Unit" which investigates gang activity in the facility, as well as employee corruption and employees bringing in contraband.
Also, instead of "Warden," an option for "Sheriff" should exist!
That's all I have right now, I'll probably update with more ideas from real prisons/jails at a later date. Please feel free to ask me anything!
