Suggestion for Parole Consequences

[andoreth]

I think having money bonus/penalty being the main consideration for parole misses the mark and just adds more money into a system that at times is already a bit too flush with income. It also does not mesh with the realities of prison parole programs very well.

I think a better solution would be to replace some of the daily income from each prisoner with an "admittance fee" paid to you by the government to reward you for helping to reduce their backlog of prisoners. The more quickly you rotate prisoners through your system, the more this fee would impact your bottom line favorably. (However, you would still make enough extra for normal and max prisoners to dissuade using min only in order to increase profits.)

However, each prisoner you parole who goes on to commit more crimes adds to an "unsafe parole" score for an amount of time. As that score gets higher, the government will commit to sending you fewer and fewer prisoners each day and if it gets high enough stop sending any until enough transgressions fall off the score to bring it back down to acceptable levels. Do too badly for too long , and you can start to have a sad, 1/2 empty prison.

On the other hand, denying parole should anger or depress prisoners for a time. Angry prisons will fight, complain, maybe try to start riots, and try to find weapons. Depressed prisoners turn to drugs and alcohol, and refuse to take part in any work or reform programs for a while.

Finally, many prisoners should behave better than normal for an amount of time before their parole hearing (trying to play the system).. working harder, not complaining and staying out of trouble, making them some of the best prisoners, and therefore missed when they do get parole, but whatcha-gonna-do. (Some prisoners based on personality could not care less about parole or would never bow down to authority under any circumstances.)

[HerrJoebob]

Very good suggestions; maybe the stoical ones would be indifferent to parole?

"Angry" does appear to already be a status effect that a prisoner can get in A29; I assume it's from being denied parole.

[ElSalvaje]

Very good suggestions; maybe the stoical ones would be indifferent to parole?

"Angry" does appear to already be a status effect that a prisoner can get in A29; I assume it's from being denied parole.

Yes, they already get angry when parole is being denied. The angry status effect lasts for 12 hours.

[andoreth]

Other than seeing the word "Angry" listed as a status effect, I have not noticed any real change in prisoner behavior after a failed parole hearing, and 12 hours is so short that it hardly makes a difference. Though my main prison is rather peaceful generally, so that may be a special case and I'm just missing the drama.

[Roy974]

Other than seeing the word "Angry" listed as a status effect, I have not noticed any real change in prisoner behavior after a failed parole hearing, and 12 hours is so short that it hardly makes a difference. Though my main prison is rather peaceful generally, so that may be a special case and I'm just missing the drama.

I had a a few rooms burned down after a few days had passed since adding the parole room and the prison was running smooth before then. Tried de-zoning the room and the prison runs fine again but at some point of re-zoning it to parole I get someone start a fire (This is a big prison on the large map though) my small prison runs perfectly, an occasional fight but nothing big. Never had a fire in any of my prisons (had the game since alpha 16 and have over 606 hours clocked on it so far) so seeing my first fire was an experience in its self, fun though.

[HerrJoebob]

Other than seeing the word "Angry" listed as a status effect, I have not noticed any real change in prisoner behavior after a failed parole hearing, and 12 hours is so short that it hardly makes a difference. Though my main prison is rather peaceful generally, so that may be a special case and I'm just missing the drama.

Same here... I have an armed guard on permanent patrol in the parole room, so I ended up with one guy that had an interesting combo of status effects: "Angry", "Suppressed", and "Calmed"...