Prison Architect

Prison Architect Design and run the ultimate prison in Prison Architect: build secure facilities, hire staff, manage finances and utilities, and set inmate schedules to stop escapes. Use the editor to create your own prison and share ideas.

Prison Architect

Prison Architect is a popular simulation game where you step into the shoes of a warden. Using limited resources, your job is to design one of the most secure prisons possible—even for the most dangerous inmates. You'll need to build both housing areas and security facilities, then hire the right people to run day-to-day operations and prevent escapes.

Because you start with restricted funds, you must complete early funding projects to unlock additional money. Plan your first construction choices and staff hires carefully so your prison grows in a stable, healthy way. The game also includes an editor, letting you show off your ideas—build your own prison, invite other players to join escape attempts, and get even more variety from custom scenarios.

Gameplay Overview

Prison Architect is a top-down 2D simulation with a partially 3D perspective mode. It blends strong construction and management gameplay with high mod support. You’re hired by the CEO of a private, for-profit prison company to build and operate a prison as both architect and governor.

What You Manage

• Facilities: construct buildings and arrange the prison layout.
• Utilities: connect required systems across the prison.
• Staff: hire workers and administrators needed to unlock systems.
• Prisoner needs: meet essential requirements such as sanitation.
• Finances: manage income and daily operations to keep the prison running.

Key Mechanics

• You can set up reform and work programs to reduce an individual prisoner’s recidivism rate.
• Prisoners follow your rules indirectly by using a scheduled routine you assign.
• You may increase difficulty with extra conditions like temperature simulation, gang activity, and more extreme weather.
• You can choose to build a female prison, which requires nursing and childcare facilities for female inmates with an infant.

Prison Quality and Reporting

Your prison is evaluated using in-game reports. Results depend on factors such as:

• Recidivism (for prisoners who leave the facility)
• Overall happiness
• Violence levels inside the prison

Security Levels and Death Row

• Inmates are grouped into five security levels, each tied to different temperaments and sentence lengths.
• Higher security levels tend to come with more difficult reputations and more serious crimes, but they also provide extra cash flow.
• Death Row prisoners start with a “clemency” gauge shown as a percentage.
• Each failed Death Row Appeal session can reduce that clemency value.
• If the percentage falls below a certain threshold, a Death Row prisoner can be executed without legal backlash to the facility, even if the prisoner is innocent.



• If an appeal succeeds, the prisoner may be released or moved into the general prison population.
• You can also assign inmates to Protective Custody.

Modes and Failure Conditions

• The CEO can fire you if you reach a failure condition, which prevents you from managing that prison further.
• On prison creation, you can enable Creative Mode, where finances are ignored, research is fully unlocked, and building is instant (plus other changes for a freer sandbox experience).

Staff and Roles

To run the prison, you can hire staff for different responsibilities, including administration, security, maintenance, financial management, and health. At the beginning, you can only hire a limited set: workmen, guards, cooks, and the essential warden.

Once the warden is on your payroll, you can use the game’s bureaucracy system to research and unlock more staff positions.

Administrators

Administrators are crucial—especially early on. There are six administrators who can research additional staff to make your job easier. Each administrator requires their own office: a 4x4 room with a chair, desk, and filing cabinet.

The Warden

• You can hire only one warden.
• The warden researches other members of the administrative team, who can then research staff or abilities related to their specific roles.
• The warden also unlocks the regime report, where you can adjust prisoners’ daily schedule and the quality of their meals.

The Accountant

• The accountant provides access to government grant programs for extra funding.
• She lets you exceed your daily operating budget as long as your current balance can cover the difference.
• She unlocks finance and valuation reports so you can compare spending vs. earnings and evaluate your prison’s value—from physical facilities to safety.

The Chief

When the chief is hired, he is able to research…