Escapes. Always!

[manics01]

I cannot stop escapes no matter what I try, I've had little to no escapes on of but the ps4 version is escape after escape, perimeter Wales everywhere triple fences around the complex with perimeter walls in between. But still escapes, what can I do?

[Jesseas123]

Get dogs and search cells

[MC15]

Use perimeter walls because it makes it harder for people to dig out off

[Jesseas123]

Good to know very well done

[econodog]

A few tips that may help you out. I'm at day 126 with 0 escapes

Use perimeter walls!
Don't have dirt areas between your cells and perimeter walls & place your buildings that don't require water supply between the cells and the outer walls. Prisoners escape quicker through those large water pipes, don't have them near your outer wall if possible.
Try to keep your cells within the middle area of your map so they have more distance to dig.
Search toilets that are in vulnerable places often.
Keep freedom levels high so they don't want to escape.

[StormPoet]

A major important factor is making sure they can contact their family. Be sure to provide plenty of phones and a visitation area. This helps tremendously with their family need. Also making a mail room will help. If you continue to have issues get into the habit of running a daily shakedown for a while... preferably in the early morning around 7-8am or evening around 9-10pm. Once the shakedown is finished make sure you use Demolition > Remove Tunnels over the entire map to make sure tunnels are removed. Once you get their most critical needs met the attempts to escape should ease up to where you only need to shakedown every 2-3 days. To see prisoner's needs you have to have a psychologist.

[manics01]

On the pc I never had the issue but ill keep you all posted

[D11_Nat]

Great advice in here, good work team!

Nat D11

[D11_Nat]

Ooh also, keep a look out for prisoners with the Freedom need, they're the troublesome ones normally. They'll seek out contraband in order to tunnel out. If your contraband availability is high then your escape attempts are more likely.

Some more things you might want to do to lower your escape rates:

Shakedown- find contraband and searching toilets to reveal tunnels.
Solitary Punishment for those with high Freedom need to suppress them.

But the best way to stop inmates escaping is to make sure they're happy and have regular contact with their families.

Hope this is helpful

Nat D11

[manics01]

Excellent help! Also how do I stop the flow of contraband as I'm constantly told its out of control, with metal detectors and sniffers everywhere whatmore can I do?

[Jesseas123]

You could do a shakedown or search prisoners by hand

[D11_Nat]

Yeah it's just one of those things. If you've got a prison with a lot of work spaces that the inmates can legitimately access, you're always going to have high contraband. There's no way to really stop it altogether unless you remove access to the contraband. Plenty of metal detectors, guards, regular shakedowns will keep it under wraps but it will always be high. I'd maybe recommend having a look at the Contraband menu and seeing what the common items are. Maybe they'll point out areas where your security is a little more lax.

The prison I'm currently playing has VERY high contraband levels but I'm also pretty secure and the inmates are all happy so there's no big drama

Nat D11

[RGorman2016]

I've only had a couple of escapes so far. Just do a shakedown every couple of nights and it should stay under control. Also get metal detectors where the prisoners enter their cell blocks. Hope I helped!

[Little_devilX]

I dint try it out yet but suronding your prison with water might help against tunnelling too right?

[Jesseas123]

Idk but that's a good idea

[Augdog_909]

In addition to this, go in to the patrol menu and create 1 patrol square on the side of each metal detector. This will cause the guards to stay in one spot. Assign a dog handler to one, & a regular guard to the other one. if the metal detector doesn't catch the contraband, the dog will be a second chance in catching any contraband. The patrolling guard will typically search the inmate asap if not preoccupied.

Also keep in mind that contraband can be tossed in over perimeter walls/fences(not positive if concrete walls or brick walls will prevent this) IIRC, it can be tossed into your prison 10 tiles or so. I just make sure prisoners have no access to the edge of the maps if i can help it!

[Bigurn]

The way I have mine set up right now they can dig to their hearts content (though we frown upon it) but even if one does manage to tunnel out his cell walls sadly he has no where to go, except to the infirmary after being tased and bitten then to solitary. I have had like 4 pretty good tunnel escape attempts with this setup but none have been successful.

[StormPoet]

While water around the perimeter of a prison (MOATS FOR THE WIN!!!) does cut down on the tunnel escape attempts they just start tunneling towards the front gate. This is a win-win. It takes much longer to reach the front gates and if you have a multi-gate setup at the front you will have plenty of time to catch them so I would recommend still doing shakedowns occasionally with the frequency based proportionally on how close the inmates cells are to the front gate. The closer they are the more frequently you need to shakedown.

[Bigurn]

Mine never tunnel towards the "honeyhpot" lol no they tunnel like usual its just when they get out they have no where to go really. Its pretty funny watching them waste their effort digging though and it gives them exercise, also if they are occupying their time digging their less liking to be sticking so its a win win.

[Skierky]

I shut down my workshop and I've had no escapes since then