Room requirements v1.6

Overview

Quick-reference guide to room requirements in Prison Architect.

Introduction

Quick-reference guide to room requirements in Prison Architect.

This great looking artwork was created by Morten Elgaard Pedersen.

Version info:

• 30. April 2016 | Version 1.0 | First draft
• 01. May 2016 | Version 1.1 | Added graphic illustrations
• 03. May 2016 | Version 1.2 | Changed incorrect information
• 17. May 2016 | Version 1.3 | Minor corrections
• 19. May 2016 | Version 1.4 | Few additions to the Notes section
• 24. May 2016 | Version 1.5 | Added links to the Notes section
• 30. October 2016 | Version 1.6 | Major update
• 22. May 2017 | Version 1.61 | Minor correction

Armoury

Room for storing equipment and gear for the armed guards.

Once unlocked, the player will receive the ability to build an armoury along with its equipment and the ability to hire Armed Guards. Each Armed Guard requires his own Guard Locker, and will rest in the armoury – unlike the other staff members who rest in the Staff Room. Also Snipers need the armoury in order to be effective. Without an armoury, snipers only have a suppression effect, but won’t be able to shoot at prisoners or give warning shots.

– Requires: Armory unlocked in Bureaucracy
– Requirements: Indoor, Weapons Rack (2×1), Guard Locker (1×1, one required per Armed Guard), Table (4×1)
– Contraband: Shotgun, Gun, Rifle, Tazer, and Baton

Used by:

• Armed Guards

Canteen

Where your prisoners go to eat meals during “Eat” time in Regime.

When the Regime says it’s time for a meal, the prisoners will rush to the canteen, grab a Food Tray with food and head to the benches. When meal time is over, the prisoners will leave their dirty food trays behind. These will be cleaned by the Cooks if there is a Sink nearby. Otherwise they will be disposed of and clean ones bought after every meal.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Requirements: Indoors, Serving Table (5×1), Table (4×1), Bench (4×1)
– Contraband: None

Used by:

• Prisoners

Cell

Living space for one Prisoner. Inmates will return here during “Sleep” and “Lockdown” time in Regime, as well as during Bangup.

Obviously, it is one of the key parts of your prison, and you should plan to construct one for each prisoner that comes under your care. A cell is always preferable to a Holding Cell for keeping your prisoners contained, not to mention happy. A multi-inmate alternative to the cell is the Dormitory.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room size: Minimum Size 2 x 3 and can be reduced to 3m² through Bereucracy
– Requirements: Indoors, Enclosed (surrounded by walls and doors), Bed (1×2), Toilet (1×1, requires plumbing)
– Contraband: None, only what the prisnors hide in theire cell

Used by:

• Prisoners

Chapel

Prisoners will use this room to calm themselves with spiritual recovery.

The Chapel is where prisoners can go to find comfort and calmness. The Spiritual Leaders from the different religions will run the Spiritual Guidance programs in this room, which will relieve the Spirituality needs of the prisoners. Up to 20 prisoners may attend a single, 2-hour service at a time, and all of them will need either a Prayer Mat or space on a Pew.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Minimum 6×6
– Requirements: Indoors, Altar (3×2), Pews (4×1), Prayer Mat (1×1)
– Contraband: None

Used by:

• Spiritual Leaders
• Prisoners

Classroom

Room allowing a Teacher to instruct programs to prisoners in an attempt to reform them.

For the prisoner programs, Foundation Education Program and General Education Qualification, the Teacher is an external employee who arrives just before the class is to begin and uses the required Desk placed in the classroom to conduct the course. Navigation time for the Teacher to reach the classroom may impact the attendance rating for the inmates enrolled in the class, so make sure there is an efficient path from the classroom to the outside. Both programs will take 3 hours, with the Foundation Education Program being able to be attended by 20 prisoners, while the General Education Qualification can only be attended by 10 prisoners per session.

The only program for guards is the Guard Tazer Certification, led by the Chief. The program is limited to 10 guards per session and will take one hour.

Note: The Classroom requires Education to be researched.

– Requires: Education unlocked in Bureaucracy
– Room Size: Minimum 5×5
– Requirements: Indoors, School Desk (1×2), Office Desk (2×1)
– Contraband: None

Used by:

• Teacher
• Prisoners
• Guards
• Chief

Cleaning Cupboard

Stores cleaning equipment for prisoners to clean the prison. Prisoners will report here during “Work” time in Regime if there are jobs available.

• It is not necessary to have a Janitor or even to have Janitor researched to have prisoners work on cleaning the prison, but he will clean staff only zones of your prison.
• If you design an area to be off limits to prisoners, sometimes all cleaning tasks will be assigned there, effectively stopping your prisoners cleaning.
• You do not need to retain either the Chief or Foreman on the payroll once the necessary research has been performed.
• Bleach will be automatically taken to the Cleaning Cupboard by the Workmen.
• Note that Prisoners will steal Poison from this room, a source of Contraband. However, poison is smelly contraband, and can be sniffed out by a Guard Dog.
• To combat this, one may put all the rooms that have sources of smelly contraband in them in a thin corridor with just one exit. At the end of the corridor, place a Guard Dog. It will sniff out most, if not all, the contraband.
• As the Cleaning Cupboard is a source of weapons, any fight starting there could quickly become very bloody. You may want to restrict which prisoners are able to go (and work) there.

– Requires: Cleaning unlocked in Bureaucracy
– Room Size: Minimum 3×3, Floor space per working prisoner: 4m² each, Maximum optimal size: 80m² (20 working prisoners)
– Requirements: Indoors
– Contraband: Poison (Narcotics, Smelly) and Club (Weapons, Improvised)

Used by:

• Prisoners
• Janitors

Common Room

Room to allow your prisoners to relax.

Commonly used objects inside of the common room are:

• TV
• Pool Table
• Bookshelf
• Phone Booth
• Chair

Also used for the Alcoholics Group Therapy program, which needs a Chair for every participant. It is led by a Psychologist, takes 2 hours per session and allows group sizes of up to 20 prisoners, if there are enough chairs.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Variable size
– Requirements: Indoors
– Contraband: None

Used by:

• Prisoners

Deliveries, Exports, Garbage

Deliveries: Where your goods, materials, and prisoners are dropped off.

Exports: Finished workshop items will be sent here for a Supply Truck to pick them up.

Grabage: Where your garbage is dropped off to be collected by a Supply Truck.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Variable size
– Requirements: None
– Contraband: None

Used by:

• Workman
• Cooks
• Guards

Dormitory (4m² per prisoner)

Same as Cell, but for more than one Prisoner.

The privacy need suffers when a prisoner is housed in a dormitory instead of a private cell.

Death Row inmates cannot be assigned to dormitories, they need to have single cells.

Prisoners may dig Escape Tunnels through the toilets of their dormitories. Note that multiple inmates of a dormitory may team up together to dig faster.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Minimum Size 2 x 3 and can be reduced to 3m²
– Requirements: Indoors, Enclosed (surrounded by walls and doors), Bed (1×2) or Bunk Bed (1×2), Toilet (1×1, requires plumbing)
– Contraband: None

Used by:

• Prisoners

Execution

Where you send your prisoners to die.

Only prisoners with the risk category Death Row can be executed. This category cannot be assigned. To allow intake of prisoners of that category, your prison has to have designated Death Row zone cells. Death Row inmates do not follow any Regime and thus will not work or participate on any program except for the Death Row Appeal in the Parole Room.

– Requires: Death Row unlocked in Bureaucracy
– Room Size: Variable size
– Requirements: Indoors, ElectricChair (2×2)
– Contraband: None

Used by:

• Prisoners
• Warden
• Chief
• Spiritual Leader
• Execution Witnesses

Family Cell

Where your prisoners live, if they have babies.

The Family Cell is similar to the normal cell, but only needed for mothers with babies. Prisoners not having babies won’t be assigned these cells.

Additional to the requirements of the normal cell, the family cell also requires a Crib and an integrated Shower Head, and its minimal size is bigger than the normal cell.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Minimum size 4 x 4 and can be reduced to 3m²
– Requirements: Enclosed (surrounded by walls and doors), Indoors. Bed (1×2), Toilet (1×1, requires plumbing), Crib (1×1), Shower Head (1×1).
– Contraband: None
– Used by: Prisoners (mothers only)

Forestry

Zone for the automation of Tree farming / the wood industry.

Gardeners will plant the trees, workmen will harvest them to produce 3 Logs which can be sold or, if your prison is equipped with a functioning Workshop, then your prisoners can cut down the logs into wood, which can sell for more money or again be crafted to Superior Beds, which can be sold for even more money.

• Trees will be automatically bought as soon as the forestry is placed, and replacement trees will be bought continuously from then on. One tree is planted about every 12 squares, each costs $100, so depending on the size of the forestry you may want to hold off until you have sufficient capital.
• A reasonable place to assign a Forestry is the area between the inner and the outer fence of your prison, if it has such.

– Requires: Grounds Keeping unlocked in Bureaucracy
– Room Size: Minimum Size 5×5
– Requirements: Outdoor
– Contraband: Axe, spade, and saw

Used by:

• Gardeners
• Prisoners

Holding Cell

Larger shared living space occupied by any Prisoners not assigned a Cell. Inmates will return here during “Sleep” and “Lockdown” time in Regime even if it contains no Beds, as well as during Bangup.

Prisoners will not dig escape tunnels from a holding cell, and holding cells will not get a cell grading as normal Cells do.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Minimum 5×5
– Requirements: Enclosed (surrounded by walls and doors), Indoors, Toilet (1×1, needs plumbing), Bench (1×4).
– Contraband: None

Used by:

• Prisoners

Infirmary

Area for your medical staff to work. When injured, Prisoners and Staff will be escorted by a Guard to the Infirmary to receive medical attention.

The infirmary also is the place where the doctor’s Pharmacological Treatment of Drug Addiction program takes place. It requires a medical bed for each addict, 10 of which can participate in one session of 1 hour length.

There are some design implementations that can maximise the use of doctors:

• With the goal of maximising the healing of the sick and injured:
• – Consider keeping infirmaries small and scattered around your prison with one near each cell block.
• -Each bed is a 2 x 2 square – having a 5 x 3 room is ideal for a doctor and 2 beds. A larger room could contain several beds and a few Morgue Slabs for a morgue area.
• -Try and install them in high traffic corridors used by prisoners and staff. Doctors will come outside and heal as they walk past.
• Start with one or two doctors in an infirmary. However note they are neither assigned nor deployed. They can and will leave that infirmary:
• -Tired Doctors will leave an infirmary to rest in a staff room. Doctors will then return to the closest infirmary and not the one they originally came from. Consider placing staff rooms nearby to avoid long walks to rest and prevent congregation in a single infirmary.
• -Doctors will sometimes chase an injured prisoner to heal. They’ll return to the closest infirmary and not where they came from.

– Requires: Health unlocked in Bureaucracy
– Room Size: Variable size
– Requirements: Indoors, MedicalBed (2×2)
– Contraband: Narcotics and Weapons

Used by:

• Doctors
• Prisoners
• Guards

Kennel

Guard Dogs will use this room to rest in Dog crates to restore their energy.

Each dog will require a dog crate to sleep in. The number of dog handlers and guard dogs you can hire is not, however, limited by the number of crates. Having more dogs than crates only means that they cannot all rest at the same time.

– Requires: Dogs unlocked in Bureaucracy
– Room Size: Minimum Size 5×5
– Requirements: Enclosed (surrounded by walls and doors), Dog Crate (1×2)
– Contraband: None

Used by:

• Guard Dogs
• Dog Handlers

Kitchen

An area for cooks to prepare food for your prisoners before delivering meals to the Canteen.

For prisoners to be allowed to work in the kitchen, they have to pass the Kitchen Safety and Hygiene Program, which also takes place in the kitchen and requires one cooker per prisoner, up to 5 of them being able to attend at once. A session takes 2 hours and is led by a cook. Afterwards, up to 20 qualified prisoners may work in the kitchen during work regime, each taking up 12 squares of space (so a kitchen of 240 squares will provide jobs for the maximum amount of prisoners), if assigned in the Prison Labour view of the Logistics menu.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Variable size
– Requirements: Indoors, Cooker (2×1), Fridge (2×1), Sink (3×1)
– Contraband: Weapons and Tools
– Floor space per working prisoner: 12m² each
– Maximum optimal size: 240m² (20 working prisoners)

Used by:

• Cooks
• Prisoners

Laundry

Room to wash and press your prisoner uniforms. Prisoners will report here during “Work” time in Regime if there are jobs available.

In order to have the Laundry working, you will have to assign jobs to the Laundry in the Prison Labour view of the Logistics menu.

• First, prisoners working in the Laundry will distribute clean Uniforms around the prison using Laundry Baskets.
• Prisoners will then change into these if their clothing Need is high.
• Dirty uniforms are then collected up into the same Laundry Baskets and brought back to the Laundry Room where they are washed in Laundry Machines.
• The uniforms are then ironed on an Ironing Board.
• In conclusion the clean uniforms are then delivered back to a Cell.

Tips

• Inmates who need clothes can be sent to a holding cell with a few beds, if those beds have clothes, and they should change. Reasoning: Clothes are placed on beds, seemingly regardless of whether there is an inmate in the cell.
• Having a simple laundry room (washer/ironing board/laundry cart) for each cell block can help keep things under control.
• If jobs cannot be assigned in Logistics menu, try adding a Staff Door to the room.
• As the uniforms have to be moved through your prison twice during the laundry process, ways between cell blocks and laundries should be efficient.

– Requires: Prison Labour unlocked in Bureaucracy
– Room Size: Variable size
– Requirements: Indoors, Laundry Machine (1×1, requires plumbing), Laundry Basket (1×1, moveable), Ironing Board (3×1)
– Contraband: None
– Floor space per working prisoner: 4m² each
– Maximum optimal size: 80m² (20 working prisoners)

Used by:

• Janitors
• Prisoners

Library

Prisoners will use this room to read or work.

Unsorted books are brought here by workmen. The books are sorted by prisoners in work hours, for which they must have passed the Foundation Education program and the according jobs have to be assigned in the Prison Labour view of the Logistics menu. Each working prisoner needs 12 tiles of space, and max. 20 prisoners can work in one library.

Prisoners can read the books and relief the Literacy need. They can also lend a book from the library and take it to their cells. If returned, the book must be sorted in again.

– Requires: Unlocked from start. Prison Labour unlocked in Bureaucracy to assign working prisoners
– Room Size: Minimum 5×5
– Requirements: Indoors, Library Shelf (3×1), Sorting Desk (3×1)
– Contraband: Scissors
– Floor space per working prisoner: 12m² each
– Maximum optimal size: 240m² (20 working prisoners)

Used by:

• Prisoners

Mail Room

Processing and sorting room for letters sent to prisoners from their families. Prisoners may be assigned to work in the Mail room through Logistics

The Mail Room allows your prisoners to receive mail from the outside world. Sacks of unsorted mail will arrive at deliveries daily at 8am and are subsequently moved to the mail room.
The mail is sorted by prisoners or guards during work regime at the sorting desk and then placed into a mail satchel (jobs in the mail room need to be assigned in the Prison Labour view of the Logistics menu for this). Delivery of the mail is made by either a guard or a prisoner. Reading mail satisfies a prisoner’s Family, Recreation and Comfort needs.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Minimum 5×5
– Requirements: Indoors, Sorting Desk (3×1), Table (4×1)
– Contraband: None
– Floor space per working prisoner: 12m² each
– Maximum optimal size: 240m² (20 working prisoners)

Used by:

• Prisoners

Morgue

Where you store your dead prisoners and staff while awaiting a Hearse to take them away.

Prisoners and Staff can die through fights, by fire, starvation amongst others. Other than not having dead bodies lying around in your prison, the morgue does not have an effect game-wise.

– Requires: Health unlocked in Bureaucracy
– Room Size: Variable size
– Requirements: Indoors, MorgueSlab (2×1)
– Contraband: Knives and scissors

Used by:

• Dead people

Nursery

Activity room for female prisoners with babies.

The Nursery is a shared room for all mothers to live in, typically isolated from the rest of the prison.
Mothers will spend much of their time in this room with their babies.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Variable size
– Requirements: Serving Table (5×1), Table (4×1), Bench (4×1), Crib (1×1), Play Mat (1×1)
– Contraband: None
– Used by: Prisoners (mothers only)

Office

An area for your administrative staff to work.

Tips

• There is no benefit regarding size, save your money.
• An office does not require walls around it, so you may create an open and modern workspace instead of a block of cell-like office cubicles.
• Once a staff member that requires an office is hired they will be automatically assigned an unoccupied office.
• If you want a staff member to have a specific office, you should create the office as you add staff members; otherwise they may take up an office you don’t intend them to. You will have to un-zone the office to force them to move. This may matter especially for the Psychologist’s office, to which prisoners usually should have access in order to be able to participate in the Behavioural Therapy Program.
• The Psychologist’s office should be near the common room, because he needs to regularly travel there for the Alcoholics Group Program.
• The Foreman’s office should be near the workshop, because he needs to regularly travel there for the Workshop Safety Program.
• Resting aside, the Accountant and Lawyer never have to leave their offices, where as the Warden and the Chief rarely leave their offices for executions. To minimize contraband you can place their offices away from prisoners.
• Zone Offices “Staff Only” so prisoners will not go in there, but also will not clean the room. You need Janitors for those.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Minimum 4×4
– Requirements: Office Desk (2×1), Chair (1×1), Filing Cabinet (1×1)
– Contraband: Cellphone, Booze, Cigs, and Lighter

Used by:

• Warden
• Accountant
• Psychologist
• Foreman
• Chief
• Lawyer

Parole Room

The Parole Room is where prisoners go to be judged on whether or not they can be released on parole. If the prisoner’s re-offending chance is too high, they will be denied parole. However, if the re-offending chance of the prisoner is low enough, they’ll get paroled. Death Row inmates also get their appeal here, where they have the possibility to get released as innocent or to get downgraded to maximum security, thus saving their lives.

A parole hearing requires the inmate, the inmate’s lawyer (Parole Lawyer) and the Parole Officer. Both the latter ones count as external staff. They will arrive on site to hold the parole hearing, and leave when it has completed.

Death Row inmate will be joined by the Appeals Lawyer and the Appeals Magistrate in the Parole Room then, and in each session has a Chance of Clemency of getting released or downgraded to maximum security

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Minimum 5×5
– Requirements: Indoors, Visitor Table (3×2)
– Contraband: None

Used by:

• Prisoners
• Parole Officers
• Prisoners’ Lawyers
• Appeals Lawyer
• Appeals Magistrate

Reception

Room where prisoners will be taken when they first arrive.

The reception room is a dedicated arrival point for prisoners. If a reception exists, they will be taken there by guards when they first arrive off the Prisoner Bus. They will be searched and their clothes will be removed. A guard will then give the prisoners clean clothes that have been washed in an assigned Laundry (if these aren’t available, their dirty clothes will be put back on them). After this has happened, the prisoner will be escorted to his cell as normal.
If no reception room is in the prison, then they will be taken to Deliveries and will just be taken to their cells (reception is optional).

The Reception stops new intake from smuggling contraband into the prison but is much more labour intensive than the original method as prisoners have to be escorted in, then searched, their clothes replaced and then escorted to their cells, whereas they would normally just be taken to their cells. Many guards are needed to handle intake when a Reception is used.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Variable size
– Requirements: Indoors, Office Desk (2×1), Table (4×1), Chair (1×1)
– Contraband: None

Used by:

• Guards
• Prisoners

Security

Office to house surveillance equipment such as a CCTV console.

Tips

• This room is neither necessary to have a functioning CCTV monitoring or Phone Tap station nor to have a functioning Door Control Station.
• The room can be used to station idle guards in a prisoner heavy location or cell block.
• A security room built near cell blocks assures fast response time.
• CCTV Monitors, Door Control Systems and Phone Tap all will be left unmanned for a while when the assigned guard gets tired. Be sure to have some redundancy here if you want to avoid times with no remote control for your doors, etc. A staff room should not be too far away to keep the interruptions at a reasonable length.
• There’s no need for this room to be indoors (or outdoors) explicitly, you may put it anywhere.
• Only guards that are not deployed in any room, or for patrol, or needed for tasks like escorting prisoners will operate the surveillance devices.

– Requires: Security unlocked in Bureaucracy
– Room Size: Minimum 4×4
– Requirements: Office Desk (2×1), Chair (1×1), Filing Cabinet (1×1)
– Contraband: Jail Keys, Baton, Cigs and Lighter

Used by:

• Guards

Shower

Used to keep your prisoners squeaky clean, and lice free. Prisoners will report here during “Shower” and “Free Time” time in Regime.

Tips

• Don’t set the shower heads next to each other. Prisoners don’t like to shower too close to each other.
• Drains should be placed right before the exit to avoid water flowing out of the room.
• At shower time, prisoners will head to the closest shower room available. If you want them to go to one next to their cell block, schedule a Lockup just before Shower regime.
• There’s no need for this room to be indoors (or outdoors) explicitly, you may put it anywhere.
• Then again, except for the shower regime, there’s no need to have a shower room at all, as you can place shower heads anywhere else.
• In the common scenario where you put a shower regime immediately after a sleep regime, best also place toilets in your shower, as the prisoners’ bowels and bladder needs will be particularly high after sleeping.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Variable size
– Requirements: ShowerHead (1×1, requires plumbing)
– Contraband: None

Used by:

• Prisoners

Shop

Where prisoners can buy blankets, towels, magazines, soap, shampoo etc. Prisoners can work in the shop and will unpack boxes and put items on shelves. Shop goods are brought into the prison and taken to the shop the same way that Library books are taken to the Library and Mail is taken to the Mail Room.

Tips

• It may or may not be required that the adjacent room to the shop being serviced by the Shop Front be of the type Common Room. Currently there is a blank tool-tip which leaves the “Adjacent to” room requirement blank.
• When building the Shop Front, be sure to select a wall which is zoned as a part of the Shop room or the object will not operate properly. You can ensure an operable Shop Front every time if you place it inside the Shop room in a partially dividing wall. This means that prisoners will have to enter the room to make purchases.
• Because the Shop requires prisoners working within it and a customer to buy goods, it can be helpful to break up different security level Regimes into parallel Work and Free-Time blocks to ensure both roles are filled.
• Because the shop needs two working prisoners to be operational and each worker needs 12 tiles of space, a shop with the minimum size of 16 tiles will not work.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Minimum 4×4
– Requirements: Indoors, Table (4×1), Shop Shelf (3×1), Shop Front (2×1)
– Contraband: None
– Floor space per working prisoner: 12m² each
– Maximum optimal size: 240m² (20 working prisoners)

Used by:

• Prisoners

Solitary

An isolated cell used as punishment for Misconduct.

Prisoners who do not respect the prison rules are brought here for a specified amount of time based on your Policy, or they can be sent there by you manually for whatever reason. A solitary cell can be smaller than a normal cell, allowing you to fit them into otherwise wasted spaces.
Solitary Cells do not require any equipment like beds or toilets. They may of course contain such objects anyway, to avoid prisoners’ needs rising during solitary. The only need that will be addressed otherwise will be the food need, as meals will be brought to solitary cells by guards to prevent the prisoners from starving.
The only way to recruit Confidential Informants is approaching prisoners currently locked in solitary, as some of them will be willing to turn snitch in exchange for early release from confinement. Click on a prisoner in solitary and go to the ‘Experience’ tab and there is a chance he will have the option “Recruit Informant” available

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Minimum 1×1
– Requirements: Enclosed (surrounded by walls and doors)
– Contraband: None

Used by:

• Prisoners

Staffroom

This room functions to re-energize your tired staff members.

Since most Staff members should rest here (only Armed Guards and Guard Dogs do so in the Armoury and the Kennel respectively), a central place for the Staff Room keeps walk times short.
Tired staff members will also recover Energy if no staff room is available, although this is a much slower process then, and they won’t restore their full Energy without it.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Minimum 4×4
– Requirements: Indoors, Wide Sofa (2×1), Drinks Machine (1×1)
– Contraband: Cigs, Lighter, Cellphone

Used by:

• Staff

Storage

Area designated to hold any materials delivered to your prison but not currently in use.

Tips

• Make a storage room near the kitchen and/or central area to minimize walking distance.
• Place a metal detector at the door(s) of the Storage so that Prisoners who are snooping around and decide to steal metal Contraband from the Storage are caught.
• Better yet, one may assign the Storage room as “Staff Only” in the Deployment tab, so that working and curious Prisoners do not walk in and steal Contraband.
• There’s no need for this room to be indoors (or outdoors) explicitly. As there are no required objects and no automatic purchases of items related to this room, it may easily be temporarily set just about anywhere, e.g. during construction phase of the prison.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Variable size
– Requirements: None
– Contraband: Weapons and Tools

Used by:

• Workman
• Cooks

Visitation

Room for family members and lawyers to meet with Prisoners in person.

Prisoners have various family members which are listed in their rap-sheet, however some prisoners may have no family. These family members will occasionally want to visit an inmate from time to time. Once a Visitation room has been created, visitors will start to arrive every day between the hours of 8am to 8pm.

Visitors do not carry any contraband. It will be teleported to the Visitation room. So searching visitors, metal detectors or dog patrols at a visitor entrance will not have any benefit.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Variable size
– Requirements: Indoors, Visitor Table (3×2) or Visitor Booth (2×2)
– Contraband: Narcotics, Luxuries, Mobile Phone and Booze

Used by:

• Prisoners

Workshop

A room which may hold manufacturing equipment for license plate fabrication for profit. Prisoners will report here during “Work” time in Regime if jobs are available.

For the 2 hours qualification courses that are also being taught here by the Foreman, the Workshop Safety Induction and the Carpentry Apprenticeship program, the attending prisoners need up to 10 Workshop Saws or Workshop Presses and up to 5 Carpenter Tables respectively.

Tips

• It is recommended to station/patrol 2-3 guards/Dog handlers there because when prisoners get angry, they may be armed with Hammers which can kill staff in 2-3 hits.
• There’s no need for this room to be indoors (or outdoors) explicitly, you may put it anywhere.
• As the workshop is a source of weapons, any fight starting there could quickly become very bloody. You may want to restrict which prisoners are able to go (and work) there.

– Requires: Prison Labour unlocked in Bureaucracy
– Room Size: Minimum 5×5
– Requirements: Workshop Saw (3×1), Workshop Press (3×1), Table (4×1)
– Contraband: Tools, Weapons and Wooden Pickaxe
– Floor space per working prisoner: 12m² each
– Maximum optimal size: 240m² (20 working prisoners)

Used by:

• Prisoners
• Foreman

Yard

Outdoor area for excercise and recreation. Prisoners will report here during “Yard” time in Regime.

Tips

• Placing a floor which slows down your prisoners can be good advice, but will slow down your guards too if fights occur.
• The yard’s requirement for being behind ‘at least one door’ can be fulfilled either by surrounding the yard with a wall, a fence with a door, or surrounding the entire prison complex with a wall or fence.
• It can be a good idea to place Phone Booths, Shower Heads and toilets in the yard so prisoners can satisfy their family, hygiene, bladder and bowels needs while getting recreation.

– Requires: Unlocked from start
– Room Size: Minimum 5×5
– Requirements: Secure (behind at least one Door)
– Contraband: None

Used by:

• Prisoners

Notes

Thanks to Morten Pedersen for his great artwork and to Chris Delay, Mark Morris and the Introversion development team for giving us Prison Architect.

Also thanks to ThatGuyYouKnow for corrections and contributions.

Stay safe and thank you for reading…….

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