History VideoGame / PrisonArchitect

* PrisonRape: Averted, though showers, nudity, and attacks against snitches are present.

* {{Hammerspace}}: While the amount of stuff prisoners can hid on them is usually fsirly realistic, one has to wonder where why your guards didn't realise a pickpocket had ten sets of keys and ten keycards on them until actually searching them. Or where some prisoners are hiding [[BatterUp baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire]] under their uniforms. Or where they were hiding a ''[[ChainsawGood chainsaw]]''.

* IReadItForTheArticles: Magazines heavily implied to be full of racy content are among several items sold at the prison Shop. Tellingly, they cater to a Prisoner's [[ADateWithRosiePalms Recreation]] need as well as Luxuries.

* AcquittedTooLate: This is entirely possible when you execute an inmate on death row. Sometimes, the message you get in the final report states that new evidence came to light that would've affected the condemned inmate's appeal, something that would normally get them bumped down to maximum security at least. If the chance of clemency for the inmate was below 5% (10% if your AmoralAttorney researched a reduction in the threshold), then this won't affect anything. If the chance of clemency was higher, however, then this acquittal will result in an eye-watering $50,000 fine and the immediate removal of all other death row inmates. Afterwards, if it happens again, it's game over.

* AnachronismStew: The developers admitted that they do not have a specific time frame the game is set in, and is instead a combination of different iterations of the American prison system.

* {{Hypocrite}}: The Mayor is shown in the ending of the last chapter in the campaign debating Doctor Hurst, arguing that the latter is basically embezzeling funds to do so... [[spoiler:although as we learned in Chapter 3, he himself was extending the stay of the prisoners just to make more money and earn votes]].
* InsaneEqualsViolent: Zig-zagged. Criminally insane prisoners need to be regularly treated to handle their anxiety and other mental problems, and ones that are agitated can act unpredictably. They ''may'' start smashing up furniture or fighting each other... or they might show odd obsessive-compulsive actions like carrying random things they found on the ground or searching random cells for contraband.

** Getting a {{game over}} through a riot going out of control results in [[HomeGuard The National Guard]] storming the prison, with the player allowed to watch [[CurbStompBattle the result]].
** Letting too many of your prisoners die results in you being found guilty for criminal negligence, [[ControllableHelplessness and being forced to serve time in your own prison]].

* HairTriggerTemper: Any prisoner with the Volatile trait is, as the game puts it, "Liable to kick off without reason and without warning". This often results in them attacking people and destroying your stuff for no reason. Doubly so with the [[UpToEleven Extremely Volatile]] trait.

* SpiritualSuccessor: WordOfGod frequently cites ''VideoGame/DungeonKeeper'', but the resemblance to ''VideoGame/ThemeHospital'' is more obvious. Either way, the Bullfrog influence is pretty apparent.
** Fans of both games have referred to it as "''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' with graphics, [[RecycledInSpace IN PRISON!]]" (With varying degrees of cynicism depending on which side of the fence you stand.)
** Other fans will just cut to the chase and call it Sim Prison.

* DirtyCop: Prisoners with the Ex-Law Enforcement reputation. Such prisoners need to be protected, since they're favoured targets for murder by other inmates.

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Prisoners with the Cop Killer reputation will experience these from your guards. If the National Guard has to be called in to quell an uncontrolled riot, they will exercise very little restraint, even going so far as to [[ObligatoryWarCrimeScene mow down previously-armed prisoners while they're surrendering]].

* BerserkButton: Some things will really set your prisoners or staff off, so watch out for them.
** Prisoners with the [[TheStoolPigeon Snitch]] and [[DirtyCop Ex-Law Enforcement]] trait are viewed with deep bitterness by other inmates. If you don't want them to die, assign them to Protective Custody and place them in separate cell blocks.
** Prisoners with the CopKiller reputation are this for your Guards. [[ItsPersonal Considering what they did]], guards will take a much less tolerant approach to them.

** Parole denial. Station a guard or two in your parole rooms, or at least leave guards stationed nearby during parole hearing times.
** Locking up a gang leader will ''infuriate'' all of the gang's members, and this will cause riots very quickly if the gang is big enough. And if a gang leader is killed, expect a large riot from his gang. Needless to say, don't let the gangs get too big.

* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Prisoners wear different uniforms depending on which security level they are assigned to. Minimum are grey, normal are orange, and maximum security prisoners are red. Prisoners assigned to supermax are dark red/burgundy, and death row inmates are black, while ones under protective custody are yellow.

** Prisoners also pay attention to your guards' behavior. Prisoners up to shady behavior will try to avoid dog and guard patrols. If you order a cell block search every day while the prisoners are eating or in the yard to avoid pissing them off, they'll notice that all the guards are away and start fighting or rioting. If you activate a Confidential Informant to get his information during times when they're all stuck in lockup, in the Yard or eating, they'll get more suspicious than if you activate him or her during free time or when they're sleeping. More to the point, every time you act on an Informant's intel while they're active, it increases the other prisoners' suspicion of him or her. If they have too much heat, they'll kill them.

* HairTriggerTemper: Any prisoner with the Volatile trait is, as the game puts it, "Liable to kick off without reason and without warning". This often results in them attacking people and destroying your stuff for seemingly no reason. Doubly so with the [[UpToEleven Extremely Volatile]] trait.

* WouldHurtAChild: In Escape Mode, if you're feeling sadistic, you can go to visitor room and murder innocent visitors. And some visitors are children.

* AnAesop: Entire campaign, particularly ''G.A.B.O.S'' and ''Conviction'', has the moral that prisoners are people and things are not as [[BlackAndWhiteMorality black and white]] in the judicial system. Not all prisoners are AlwaysChaoticEvil and have a chance at redemption, private prisons and judges will make deals to maximize profits through large intake of prisoners, abuses and miserable lives of prisoners will lead to suicide and uprisings, and rehabilitation can be more beneficial than harsh treatment in the long run.

* BarbieDollAnatomy: In the Execution Room tutorial the wife and her lover are butt naked but lack genitals. Averted in-game for female prisoners.

* {{Bookends}}: The first and final tutorial missions [[spoiler:both take place in the same prison, the difference being a two year timeskip, you're now the CEO, and the first building you ever built--the execution chamber you built for Edward--is now the only thing left standing.]]
* {{Bowdlerise}}: The console version replace Don Palermo's line from a homophobic insult to saying "Son of a bitch" in italian.

* CorruptPolitician: The Mayor is in it entirely for his political career, making life worse for prisoners and even [[spoiler: manipulating things to get prisoners locked up for longer]] just to earn votes. [[spoiler:He even sends in a SWAT team to storm a hostage situation, knowing it would result in the CEO being killed, simply to cover up the evidence that he was involved. The picture of the CEO's body shows two bullets to the chest killed him, but the hostage taker only had a single bullet loaded in his revolver, meaning it was the police that killed him. It is left unclear if it was an accident or not, but the picture of his dead body is labelled ingame as "Bravo Target Down", implying it was on purpose]].

* DownerBeginning: As above, the tutorial follows a teacher named Edward, after being convicted of double murder of his wife and the man she was cheating on him with. At the end of it, you're forced to execute him via electric chair. Despite being short, it's presented in a very believable way, and sets the tone of the game quite nicely — this is a ''prison'' you're running, after all: you don't have the option on ''not'' executing him, because you are not tasked with the decision of whether he should live or die, whether he's repentant or not. [[JustFollowingOrders You are only carrying out his sentence.]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: The Mayor is shown in the ending of the last chapter in the campaign debating Doctor Hurst, arguing that the latter is basically embezzeling funds to do so...[[spoiler:although as we learned in Chapter 3, he himself was extending the stay of the prisoners just to make more money and earn votes]].

* WouldHurtAChild: In Escape Mode, if you are feeling sadistic you can go to visitor room and murder innocent visitors. And some visitors are children.

* NonLethalKO: [[StunGuns Tazers]] for Armed Guards (and potentially normal Guards) can knock a prisoner out in one hit, though they take an hour to recharge. Orderlies can use sedative drugs to restrain Criminally Insane inmates.

* StunGuns: Tazers are a unlockable weapon usable against violent inmates. Once researched they are given to Armed Guards as standard, while Prison Guards can qualify to use them if they pass a 1 hour class conducted by the Chief of Security in a Classroom.

* CorruptPolitician: The Mayor is in it entirely for his political career, making life worse for prisoners and even [[spoiler: manipulating things to get prisoners locked up for longer]] just to earn votes. [[spoiler:He even sends in a SWAT team to storm a hostage situation, knowing it would result in the CEO being killed, simply to cover up the evidence that he was involved. It is left unclear if it was an accident or not, but the picture of the CEO's body shows two bullets to the chest killed him. The hostage taker only had a single bullet loaded in his revolver, meaning it was the police that killed him]].

* {{Hypocrite}}: The Mayor is shown in the ending of the last chapter in the campaign debating Doctor Hurst, arguing that the latter is basically embezzeling funds to do so...[[spoiler:although as we learned in Chapter 3, he himself was extending the stay of the prisoners just to make more money]].

** Laundry: Prisoners need fresh clothes every now and then. To fulfil this need, you assign prisoners to the Laundry. They collect dirty prison uniforms in laundry baskets, place them in washing machines, flatten their creases out on ironing boards and deliver them fresh to inmates' cells in the baskets. Janitors can help with this.

** Kitchen: Prisoners assigned to work in a kitchen assist cooks with producing meals, moving ingredients from the fridge to the cookers and carrying cooked ingredients to the canteen. Inmates need to pass a short reform program to be elegible for this work.

* SlaveToPR: Mayor Calvin Keller, who is such a slave to PR that the moment the media starts harrassing him about something prison-related, he'll slam you with demands like "Remove all exercise equipment from the yards in 24 hours or be fined massively until you do" just so ''he'' doesn't have to look soft on crime. Of course, nobody cares about what you or the prisoners think about that, so have fun with prisoners getting so angry they start a riot.

** NoSympathy: One of the guards sees him as a two-bit thug though.

* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: Hiring janitorial staff for both indoor and outdoor cleaning work requires the two be unlocked separately, and only then after unlocking the option to hire a foreman. Again, justified by the TechTree being part of an [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Obstructive Bureaucracy]]. Regulations demand separate certifications and foremen on staff as a prerequisite for hiring janitorial staff. It can be truly infuriating to see how filthy your prison can get in the first few hours, with your prisoners endlessly annoyed by the dirt, and you can't even hire a guy to use a mop.
** You also need to go through hiring a security chief and research just so you can start assigning guards specific stations or to patrol routes.

!!Prison Architect provides examples of:

** Locking up a gang leader will''infuriate'' all of the gang's members, and this will cause riots very quickly if the gang is big enough. And if a gang leader is killed, expect a large riot from his gang. Needless to say, don't let the gangs get too big.