50h in and I have some questions

[CasartelliNL]

Hi there!

I'm having a blast with this game on PS4! I played through all story missions and I'm building my own prison now on the medium difficulty. I'm having some troubles tho and hopefully you can help me out.

Now, for some reason I can't change the language I play in. Since my PS4 is set to Dutch, Prison Architect is set to Dutch as well (even tho I'd prefer to play English). Therefore, I might not use the correct English words. Sorry for that
First off, There are quite a few mistakes in the translation. When you pick an informant you can ask him to go to the security area. When you do, there a line saying ´prisoner_onrouteline´ or something like that. The other option is probably to ´fire him´. But the Dutch translation says ´brand´. "Brand" however is not the translation to ´to fire´ but to ´a fire´. Like a building that´s on fire. So it looks like I have an option to either call him to my office, or set him on fire.. Other parts of the translation, like removing cables are just wrong. I can't recall what it says (on the office right now) but it has absolutely nothing to do with removing anything. It's like they translated a wrong sentence.

Than, the questions

1. Does having multiple accounts or lawyers have any use in game?
2. Contraband... I'm having A LOT! I have 250 prisoners and over 150 Contraband in the past 7 days. I keeps telling me that the contraband is getting out of hand. Things I've done:

Metal detectors are everywhere
Dogs everwhere, including multiple in the delivery area, visitation, choke points etc. I have twice as much dogs than I have have on patrol so they can rest.
There are no open areas to throw contraband over the wall
According to the contraband info, most just comes bursting through the (only) frontdoor. Half of the contraband just defies the law of the game. Knives get past 5 or 6 metal detectors, alcohol is getting past 4 dogs etc. How does that work? Do prisoners throw stuff through the metal detector so it can be picked up?

Furthermore, I´ve had few escapes when they tunnled out of the prisons. How do they get the shovels? I never shows up on the contraband info. I have quite a few pop ups on screen of shovels bbut there is nothing I can do from there.

Is the only way to search every cell block, every 2 days? I have one front entrance in my prison and it's the only entrance. To get from the entrance or the visitation area to any other part of the prison, one has to pass 6 detectors and a lot of dogs, even so, contraband is better available than cleen sheets. How do I stop my staff from bringing in contraband?

[D11_Nat]

Hi @CasartelliNL!

Sorry about the weird translations, I'll pass that on. I wonder whether the translation is in place from the original or whether it's one of ours. I'll look into it!

1. Not really- it might help you out if your accountant/lawyer gets exhausted and you need to do some quick research.
2. You will almost always have a lot of contraband if you've got an active prison, particularly if you have lots of inmates working in kitchens/workshops etc. Metal detectors won't pick up non-metallic items and even then don't have a 100% success rate (much like the dogs). I personally just run a shakedown every couple of days and have plenty of sniffy dog check points as well as metal detectors. Tunnels can be made with items such as spoons and knives, which are quite common contraband items. Inmates will leave the contraband in their cells quite often, unless they're planning on using them, which is why they'll pass through loads of detectors without being beeped. The stuff they get through the front door and visitation tends to be more along the lighter/cell phone line rather than digging implements.

Hope this helps!

Nat D11

[Skierky]

One thing that helps tremendously to cut down on the number of dogs you employ is to load up on kennels. For instance, I have kennels set up on my perimeter similar to that of guard towers so they don't need to go far to rest. That is the key is putting multiple kennels and staffrooms to minimize walking distance. I have 3 dogs in deliveries and a kennel right behind it. I have something like 18 or 19 kennels. All of them except for 2, maybe 3 of them are 4x4, especially on the perimeter with only one door that has access to the perimeter. My dog handlers out there never venture into the physical prison structure

[Bigurn]

Also do not have a cleaning closet lol. Learned that lesson the hard way yeah its cheap janitor labor but my lord more than bleach comes out of there. Do a shakedown at about 230am (or sooner depending on size) every few days like D11_Nat said and you will not only stop a good amout of contraband but probably catch people digging. My question is can guards bring contraband in?

[Skierky]

I'm on day 280 and I do a shakedown roughly every 10 days or more. 90% of my contraband gets caught in deliveries thanks to 3 dogs and 3 guards with 2 metal detectors, one behind the other. My cleaning closet and infirmary are pretty good with 2 to 3 dogs at each. The only problem is the dang club coming out of the cleaning closet. I eliminated the workshop so no need to worry about digging. I've had 8 escapes and 6 were from when the workshop was open and 2 were in the beginning when I left an unmonitored door to the perimeter and 2 prisoners broke out that way

[D11_Nat]

@Bigurn no, guards don't carry contraband. They do have batons, keys etc that can be stolen by inmates but not quite the same.

Nat D11

[Tribsta]

Great advice with the kennels scatterd arround the perimeter. I was getting to that stage but not quite there yet lol. Also my question is. I always choose the warden that dogs have a 50% chance to uncover tunnels. Do normal dogs uncover tunnels this way but at a lower % chance or do you just get the flag and need to manually search toilets ?

[Skierky]

In my past prisons I've never had a dog dig up a tunnel until I chose Perrywinkle for that feature

[Tribsta]

Also with contriban I pretty much use metal detectors and dogs. Metal detectors coming into the prison with dogs going in and out cantinas and to each sell block. With extra dogs petrolling. Then as said do a shake down every few days or when u think it's needed. Every time u see an inmate going for a walk kinda out the way at random he is pretty much picking something up thrown over the fence. So having a double fence would help with this.

[Tribsta]

Ye I've never not used that warden lol I'm too lazy to manually search toilets. That said the more happy your prisoners are the less likely they will try and dig out. The trick is pretty much putting toilets phone boofs etc everywhere so where ever they are they can always use them.

[Skierky]

You actually don't need to search the toilet to find a tunnel. If I see a flag I search the cell blocks closest to the flag and if there's a tunnel, I find it. My dog patrols are only on the perimeter, deliveries, visitation rooms, cleaning closet, infirmary and reception. I personally don't find a need to have them everywhere in the prison. The easiest way to stop thrown contraband is to make the outside staff only. I never have contraband thrown into the prison because prisoners don't have access to reach contraband where it could be thrown

[CasartelliNL]

still, 90% of contraband never makes it in to the prison since it gets caught in the delivery area. All contraband found there however is included in my everlasting 'contraband is out of control' messages.

But there is nothing I can do about that right? If I find 100 items in the delivery area and it never touches an inmate, it shouldnt count as contraband.

[StormPoet]

I think the logic behind it is simply because anything which doesn't belong on the prison grounds that gets discovered is contraband... even if the prisoner hasn't come into contact with it.

And as far as your English goes... it's very good. Better than some Netherlanders I know and I have known quite a few over the years. Was once the only non-Dutch member of a 400 member alliance in an old PC RPG I used to play. I learned enough Dutch to read a conversation and get the understanding of what was being said. Even had one of our new members believing I was Dutch. He asked me questions in Dutch and I answered in English. When I told him I was American he thought I was trying to trick him until he asked the Guild Master. It was hilarious!!!

[Bigurn]

My problem is like say I will start a shakedown at 2am, by 4am its about 1/2 done and it will show that no contraband is in the prison then seconds later the bar will move to like a quarter or something. Do dogs sometimes miss contraband at delivery or something? I have dogs set a delivery as well as 2 metal detectors.

[Skierky]

Unfortunately, contraband does get missed. While you have guards and dogs in delivery, they do have to rest so there are times where deliveries isn't monitored so contraband well make it into the prison.

[CasartelliNL]

You can solve that by doubling the shifts. I have twice as much dofs than there are on patrols.

What worries me is how personell can Bring in metal stuff. The detector goes off when a Cook for instance brings in food with a screwdriver. But hè never gets checked.

[Skierky]

Doubling on the number of guards versus the number of patrols assigned doesn't necessarily help because the unused patrols are idol somewhere and it still takes time for them to walk to the unassigned patrol. I tried that in the beginning and still found a great deal of patrols unmanned. That's why I suggest putting more kennels around. Less time to walk and they return to their post faster. The other problem is if you only have one dog somewhere like deliveries then when it detects something it puts all the focus on that one box and everything else seems to slip past. That's why I also suggest multiple patrols on areas like reception, deliveries, visitation, cleaning closet and infirmary.

I also share your frustration with boxes going through the metal detectors and not getting searched. Happens in the kitchens all the time 😑

[Bigurn]

Perhaps in the future a feature similar to how the reception for new inmates works should be added but for the delivery section. Everything that comes in the delivery gets automatically searched and stuff instead of just only either by being flagged by dog or detector. On a side note I also put a dog in reception just in case...never know how thoroughly these guards search these people or the creative places they may hide things.

[Blackvulture]

For stopping the tunnels you can build a perimetral wall,they are harder to dig tunnels through .

[Bigurn]

Yea they take a bit longer to dig through and to build also cost more. Giving plenty of family time cuts tunnelling down alot also but not completely. Still wondering why we can't buy fences for inside as I wanted to put a yard inside my minimum security section.