Concern about parole policy

[Inge Jones]

What worries me, from a game challenge point of view is that there is only one factor we can set for whether parole is granted or not - which is chance of reoffending. Surely some player will just do a simple bit of math, factoring in what reward you get for non-reoffending, versus what you get fined for a reoffend, and simply say "well 40% (for example) chance of reoffend rate as the policy will lead to break-even." Wouldn't it have made more sense for the player to have the final say - perhaps a list of all who have passed first hurdle of the interview or something?

[smoothrolla]

apparently its 23% but i would imagine that would annoy a lot of prisoners

[Nicotin]

Yes I also do not like this system. It seems too predictable for me too.
I also made this calculation for me and set it to this value and I don't see me changing it any time soon

[SonofSuperJoe]

It sure seems like the parole room is the most contentious of the new features in this Alpha, at least judging from the reaction here on the forums.

On the one hand, I think everyone's happy that parole is now a factor in the game. It's a pretty necessary part of a prison simulation after all. It's just that the implementation of it is causing plenty of consternation.

The issue seems primarily about how it's kind of obviously set for finding an optimal "safe" level to set it at, then never touching it again - it just doesn't seem very interactive. Additionally, we don't really know how having a better chance at parole might be leveraged as an influence on prisoner behavior. There doesn't currently seem to be any kind of system in place that will let us use a parole recommendation as a way to get prisoners to turn CI as an example, and there doesn't seem to be any way for a prisoner to choose to be better behaved in order to try and earn any kind of increased chance at making parole.

I think that's the heart of the issue - it seems a bit too shallow a feature at this point. The penalties and rewards are interesting, but they seem to be controlled too much by RNGesus and the player essentially estimating acceptable loss on potential reoffending chance versus their mean level of lowering the rate in their jail. It's just very vague as it currently stands.

Still, I'm happy that it's at least now a factor in the game, there's a lot of room for improving it now that it's in.

Or maybe that the real issue with it. The announcement that they're going to attempt to get out of Alpha this year (and thus stop adding features and focusing on bug bashing for release) has perhaps made people feel as if there's going to be a lot less time to fine tune a system like this (as well as casting doubt on wanted features - gangs seemingly being a big one people want - making it into the game) before whatever Alpha deadline is currently being set.

I think that announcement in the Alpha 29 video has people more concerned about this feature than they might otherwise would be if it also hadn't been made.

[zbyrne]

When I first watched the video, I was happy with parole. As I sat down to start using it, I quickly made up my mind about the percentage I'd choose, the game had it pre-set at 33%, one percent lower than my average reoffending rate. I personally elected for 20%, not because of the 23%, but because 20% in one in five. It does seem quite distant as a feature, if you are the "warden", then parole is the one area where you could directly interact with your prisoners.

That said I take Chris' point about not knowing your prisoners, it's true, so in truth we'd probably be making our choice solely on the percentage anyway. That said I'm sure we might see parole revisited in some way. And as for the alpha finishing, well for all we know it could finish in December of 2015, so potentially still 12 more updates, and the video said that monthly patched weren't necessarily going to come to an end. One released there could still be new patches with features.

[EddieG]

I think that somewhere LONG before I hit 1300 prisoners, the Parole concept became a HUGE clusterfuck bottleneck.

If you RELEASE 4-5 per day, how many cross the 50 & 75 threshold? Even skipping meals (ooo that makes them REAL happy when parole is denied) leads to a bottle neck.

[ouyin2000]

Perhaps a bit more immersion with the parole system without going too micro-managerially in depth is to set each security level to a different parole %. It would make sense that lower security levels will have a less chance to re-offend and therefor be more apt to be paroled. Or have a requirement of completing some sort of program, say Fundamental Education or an AA course, before being eligible for parole. Make it a passive check system so you don't get bogged down in micro managing things.

[SonofSuperJoe]

Perhaps a bit more immersion with the parole system without going too micro-managerially in depth is to set each security level to a different parole %. It would make sense that lower security levels will have a less chance to re-offend and therefor be more apt to be paroled. Or have a requirement of completing some sort of program, say Fundamental Education or an AA course, before being eligible for parole. Make it a passive check system so you don't get bogged down in micro managing things.

Well, this alone would be a big step in the right direction. Agree wholeheartedly.