In the quirky, yet excellent simulation game Prison Architect, you are tasked with building and maintaining a prison from the ground up. You start out with nothing but a plot of land and can build it up to be a large high security prison holding the most well-known criminals in the world and making a ton of money.
If you’re just starting out with this complex game there are some things you should be doing to improve the profits, security, and efficiency of your prisons. Whether it’s paying attention to the layout of the building or making sure your guards are properly armed here are some useful tips for building a profitable prison.
Updated on October 13, 2021 by Ben Baker: Running a prison is a tricky business, you want the inmates to get in, serve their time, and leave the system without any problems. But there are a lot of obstacles ranging from troublemakers, contraband, and riots that prevent this. Since this article was released players have shared even more tips and tricks they use to keep their prisons running smoothly and at a profit. Some of the better Prison Architect layout tips have been added to this list to give you even more tools to operate safely and efficiently. Some may be morally dubious, like tapping phone lines, and others are eyebrow-raising, like having showers in every cell, but they all work to help you achieve your goals.
15 Phone Taps Are Handy
It may be an invasion of privacy, but tapping the phone booths to listen in on calls is a solid way to mitigate problems. Many prisoners will use their calls to obtain contraband and other problematic items that make running your prison harder.
By tapping their calls you can cut them off at the source. It’s also a good way to identify troublemakers before they cause too many problems. It’ll feel weird knowing your guards are listening in on personal calls, but preventing the inflow of drugs, weapons, and planned escapes does make it appealing.
14 Keep Personal Need Items Near The Canteen
Prisoners don’t like being kept behinds bars and over time will start to grow agitated. It’s important to mitigate this by providing them with things to do during their free time and attend to certain needs like calling home.
A really efficient way to do this is to keep need-based items near the Canteen. Prisoners almost always finish their meals before mealtime is over so they have downtime. If there’s a phone booth, weights, or other things nearby they’ll take advantage of that free time. The other advantage of this is you’ll be attending to their needs without having to dedicate time for it.
13 Sell Or Store Excess Goods From The Workshop
Workshops are a great way to have raw materials like wood on hand to build things or sell for a profit. The problem is that oftentimes your prisoners are too productive and will fill the workshop. Once this happens they’ll stop working as there’s nowhere to put anything new they make.
To mitigate this, routinely check in on workshops and have items transferred to storage for later use or sell them. It’s also possible to sell these items manually. It can get annoying at times, but it’s important to keep them working to keep them out of trouble and put money in the bank.
12 Have Showers In Every Cell
One interesting tactic many players are using is to have a shower and drain for every cell in the prison. It may seem strange, but there are many benefits to doing this. For starters, it eliminates the need for a dedicated shower time as inmates are taking care of it themselves.
It also has the advantage of preventing fights from breaking out in the showers. There’s also the subtle benefit of calmer inmates as cold showers cool inmates off. It can be expensive to set up, but once in place, it has enormous benefits and passively attends to the inmates’ needs.
11 Keep Security At A Reasonable Level
It may seem absurd when running your prison, but having too much security can actually cause more problems. It’s tempting to have armies of well-armed guards roaming the hallways, but doing so will raise the danger level of the prison which can be an issue.
It also has the effect of causing the inmates to feel suppressed. When inmates are suppressed they’re less motivated to volunteer for reform programs. Reform programs are a great source of income and key to having better-behaved prisoners. So while it sounds strange, only have enough security to keep every safe and in line.
10 Start With Quick Grants
Right away it’s best to identify a handful of easy to obtain grants and quickly scoop them up. In the beginning you’re going to have some cashflow problems and the best way to mitigate this is to have some money flowing in from easy grants you can finish quickly.
They often come with an upfront amount you can use to build what you need to complete them and successfully finishing them gives you a lump sum to further expand your prison or offset costs. Keep a steady stream of easy grants going in the beginning and you shouldn’t have too many financial troubles.
9 Build A Storage Room Soon
One thing you can do right away to mitigate costs is to build a Storage Room. This will be a catchall for unused items or dismantled objects that can be stored here for later use. It may not seem like much, but being able to grab a few items now and then rather than purchasing new ones can save you a ton of money over time.
It’s also a great way to store extra building materials for building projects down the road, again saving you money. Do yourself a favor and build one of these as quickly as possible.
8 Keep Yard And Cells Centered
By setting up your prison properly you can provide better security and minimize the amount needed to spend on security measures. One easy way to accomplish this is to build your Yard and the Cells in the center of the prison.
This makes it harder for outsiders to get contraband into the Yard and makes it harder for prisoners to escape via tunnels or other methods. At the very least it’ll take longer for an escaped prisoner to get out which buys you time to catch them.
7 Do Frequent Shakedowns
It may be a pain for your innocent prisoners now and then, but doing frequent shakedowns is a great way to catch prisoners with contraband and prevent your inmate populace from arming themselves for a riot.
How often you do shakedowns will depend on your inmates and their temperament, but every four days seems like a good rule of thumb to follow for most situations. If you do it too often the innocents get annoyed which leads to problems and waiting too long can result in the free flow of contraband.
6 Location, Location, Location
The key to an efficient prison is to keep certain areas close to each other to minimize travel time for staff and inmates. Having your Staff Rooms near the center of the building ensures that staff have a short distance to travel to any point in the prison. Laundry near Cells for quick pickup and drop off and Workshops near Deliveries are all helpful.
One good strategy is to have your Yard close to the Canteen, shortly before mealtimes send your inmates out to the Yard and then have them enter the Canteen at once, it keeps everyone in a tight group and prevents spreading your guards too thin. This is a building game after all so having a well-designed prisoner is key to keeping security tight while reducing costs.
5 Build Double Fences
It can be expensive, but over time double fences will save you a lot of headaches and tightens your security. Most contraband gets into your prison by being thrown over the walls. Having a double layer of fencing around the perimeter of your Yard or other areas of the prison ensures that the contraband won't get into inmates’ hands.
You need to keep the fences at least nine meters apart as outsiders don’t have a good enough throwing arm to clear this distance. This corridor can also be helpful down the road for moving troublesome prisoners or staff.
4 Metal Detectors And Dogs In Canteen
In spite of your best efforts, prisoners are going to get their hands on contraband and shakedowns won't be an option or won't catch everything. One good tip to catching prisoners red-handed is to have Metal Detectors and Dog Handlers in your Canteen.
Prisoners will pass the Metal Detectors at least twice every mealtime and the dogs are great for finding non-metallic objects like drugs. This should help you catch anything that managed to slip through your previous measures.
3 Body Armor And Tazers Are Worth It
At some point an inmate will get aggressive, fights will break out, or a riot may even happen. While the number of guards you have on hand is important, having a properly armed guard is just as important. Unarmed guards aren’t very effective making a one on one confrontation risky.
A guard with Body Armor can hold his own against two inmates and a group of guards with Body Armor and Tazers are a small army. It’s entirely situational, but a group of properly armed guards can often hold their own against a group of unarmed inmates twice or three times their size.
2 Section Off Prison With Solitary And Jail Doors
Even with a properly armed Guard, you’ll still want to give them assistance in the way you set up the prison. Sectioning your prison off with Jail Doors and Solitary doors in key areas can allow you to lock down the entire prison keeping the riot contained to small pockets and preventing it from spreading.
This also helps your team retake the prison as they now can go through and tackle individual groups confined to smaller areas rather than face everybody all at once. You'll still need the National Guard’s help now and then, but you won’t need them as often using this method.
1 Separate Supermax
Finally, the best thing you can do for the safety and health of your inmates and staff is to keep the trouble makers confined to their own areas. Frequent murders or new Legendary prisoners will often cause fights and start riots if allowed to mingle with the main group.
It’s highly recommended you build a Supermax wing away from the other cells and stick a number of armed guards to keep that area on round the clock watch. It’s incredibly expensive, but once you can afford to do this you can bring in Legendary prisoners which are much more profitable and it contains the troublemakers you already have which cuts down on the costs that come from fighting and riots.