'CHAPTER 3 - G.A.B.O.S.' is, as stated, the third chapter in the prison campaign stories.
This chapter mainly teaches the player about riot handling and the establishing of better security measures/policies.
Synopsis[]
This chapter details the outbreak of a large-scale, uncontrolled prison riot at Alchemico State Prison where, as reported on CNDC News, many of the prison staff were taken hostage by the riot ringleader: Douglas Benedict. This included the CEO of Prison Architect Corporations, Charles Wallace.
The CEO's unnamed deputy took the reigns and was tasked with reclaiming and securing the prison.
Douglas Benedict made the circumstances of the hostage and riot situations known to the outside officials via a corded telephone from which he made his demands.
Benedict toyed with his hostages, killing most of them in a sadistic Russian roulette game before directly threatening the CEO for information regarding a file Benedict caught him burning moments before the riot took hold.
Armed Police deployed by Mayor Calvin Heller managed to breach the premises and shoot down the remaining rioters including Benedict himself. Charles Wallace, caught in the crossfire, was also shot dead.
Walkthrough[]
There is a riot in progress at Alchemico State Prison. Get in there and re-secure the building.
The chapter starts with a CNDC News anchor woman reporting a riot at Alchemico State Prison, led by Douglas Benedict; many of the staff members are unaccounted for, including the CEO Charles Wallace. You have just been tasked with restoring order.
You can have a brief overview of the prison, 3 wings under riot - one of which on fire, before The Negotiator calls you.
The Negotiator: "It's out of control here. Nobody is in charge. We've got multiple casualties, and the remaining guards won't go into the rioting cell blocks. We've had to pull back to the perimeter. Figure out what to do, and put a stop to this before it gets out of hand. Riot police should be here in a few minutes."
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Easier said than done! Multiple deaths, dozens of prisoners rioting, and because of the Fog of War you have no idea what the prisoners are doing inside the buildings.
First thing first, there's a building on fire. Open the Emergencies menu and call one or both the Fire Engines available; once they're here, direct the Firemen towards the buildings on fire so they can extinguish it.
| The fire is very small when it starts: I suggest you to restart the chapter and skip the cutscenes if it has already grown too much, so you can handle it more easily. |
The Negotiator: "The first of the response teams has arrived. These guys are Riot Guards, and they're much more heavily armoured. Use these guys to start retaking the captured prison wings. We've also got some paramedics from the nearby state hospital. I suggest you use them to give emergency medical attention to your Riot Guards as they retake the prison.
You have now two more units that you can manage similarly to Firemen: a squad of Riot Guards and a squad of Paramedics. Be sure you extinguish that fire before you mess with them. The rioting prisoners are kind enough not to mess with your Firemen, so don't worry if you enter the buildings with them. Once the fire is taken care of, dismiss the Fire Engine.
Your task now is to make the prisoners stop rioting. To do so, you'll have to enter the buildings and fight them until they surrender, they are knocked unconscious, or they are dead.
| You need to select your Riot Guards and Paramedics manually to make them dismount from their vehicle before you can select them from their icons on the right side of the screen. |
You should send your Paramedics to the camp with the Negotiator and the injured Guards in order to heal them, as you will need them later.
Rooms colored in red are occupied by rioting prisoners ready to fight against your guards whenever they enter them; non-red rooms are safe to go. The strategy is the following: bring your Riot Guards and Paramedics to the closest safe room (in the middle building), then enter with caution in a non safe area with the Riot Guards leaving your Paramedics behind. As soon as the nearby prisoners are defeated, retreat to the safe room and let your Paramedics heal your guards, then push a bit further.
| Only prisoners with their fists up are rioting (their current action is written in green on their tooltip); jumping prisoners in their cells are just complaining for the lack of security, and do not have to be subdued.
 
Riot Guards are not particularly obedient, and they will keep fighting nearby prisoners even when you order them to fall back. Paramedics are too scared to go in dangerous zones and won't heal your Riot Guards unless they are in safe rooms. However, if prisoners enter safe areas by destroying the adjacent doors, Paramedics will run away until these prisoners are subdued. |
Soon the Negotiator will call you again to tell you a second squad of Riot Guards has arrived. To speed up things, keep the healthy squad in the front fighting rioting prisoners while the second one is in the back getting healed by the Paramedics.
Once you have recaptured a few rooms, you will receive a call from the Mayor Calvin Heller.
Mayor Calvin Heller: "I assume this is the CEO's deputy with whom I'm speaking. I appreciate this is a very difficult time and we are all under intense scrutiny. Rest assured, you have my full support in using any and all resources at your disposal. We've gained a foot hold, and retaken some of the prison. And the loss of life so far is completely justifiable. But before you push on and retake the rest of the prison, you should re-secure the wings that you have captured. Hire some guards and assign them to the recaptured sectors from the Deployment screen. They will ensure the captured wings stay captured. Once you've taken care of that, push into the remaining zones and put these monsters down. These animals can't be rehabilitated. And they can't be negotiated with. I'm working on authorising an Armed Response team that will put an end to this quick."
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We have already handled the fire, and the central building is almost clear if nor already (remember to check in the showers too). Open the Staff menu and hire some Guards, then assign them to the rooms you just cleared through the Deployment menu. If you have healed the injured Guards in the northern camp earlier on, you should have 10 Guards ready to begin with. The objective will be cleared when you assign 20 Guards.
| A Guard stationed in a room lifts the Fog of War within their field of view, and increase the safety level of the area, making prisoners less likely to misconduct. |
The Doctor: "You've got wounded all over the prison, and more to come no doubt. You can't just leave them to bleed to death. Build an Infirmary somewhere on site, and hire Doctors to treat the injured. We've also seen quite a few bodies. For the sake of their dignity, we need to build a Morgue and start collecting them up. You'll need to hire workmen to do the constructions work. Be sure to keep them safe."
A good area for them is the empty plot of land next to the entrance of the prison, so that the Workmen will have less to walk. First, hire your Workmen from the Staff menu, even 30 if you want to do it fast.
Lay the foundations for the Infirmary and the Morgue, add the Doors, designate the Rooms and place the required objects:
- The Infirmary requires a Medical Bed, around 6 will be enough, as injured prisoners are shackled in their cells and they will receive medical cares there;
- The Morgue requires a Slab; corpses can be taken away to a Hearse directly from anywhere in the prison, so it doesn't matter the number of Slabs you add.
Don't forget to hire the Doctors from the Staff menu, 12 is a good number. As soon as you do so, they will head towards wounded prisoners and guards to heal them.
| Your Workmen might get stuck on some Jail Door, for which they have no key. Either keep a Guard nearby or open the doors manually right clicking on them. DO NOT lock them open, or you'll call for a stampede of prisoners trying to escape. |
This is an example on how the buildings can look:
At some point, Benedict will call from the Canteen, which has been obscured until now. He has taken some hostages - among which the CEO - and he's threatening to kill them all if he doesn't get a car for an easy escape.
Mayor Calvin Heller: "This is completely unacceptable. We need eyes on that canteen so we can see what's happening. There's a small security room to the north of the canteen. We need to secure it. Deploy some Guards in there to man the CCTV console, and we'll get vision of the whole cell block."
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One more task to add to the list. Move one of your squad of Riot Guards to the Security room to retake it, then assign a Guard to it to keep it under control.
| Guards won't operate that CCTV monitor in this chapter of the campaign, but the Fog of War in the Canteen will stay lifted after the cutscene. |
The Negotiator: "The Mayor has brought in some armed police from the nearby police station. Be careful with these guys. You might just end up with a bloodbath on your hands if you let them loose. On the other hand, the prisoners may choose to surrender when they see these guys coming in."
You have been assigned a squad of Armed Guards. You can use it to recapture the last wing with a bit more intimidation. Be sure to keep a Riot Police squad in front of the Armed Guards, as they are much more frail. They will shoot at first a warning shot to wound the prisoners so they will be more likely to surrender, but if they don't give up then they'll shoot them dead. So only use them if you want to risk that.
You will assist to a cutscene where Benedict will play Russian roulette with his hostages. After a man is killed, the CEO will admit to be receiving money to keep the prisoners jailed for longer than necessary.
Not much you can do about that. For now, focus on recapturing the remaining wings. While you're doing so, you will receive a last call from the Negotiator.
The Negotiator: "The main bulk of the reinforcements have arrived. You can now call up as many squads of Riot Police and Paramedics as you need, from the Emergencies toolbar.
Now you can ask for more squads through the Emergencies menu to replace squads with dead Riot Guards or hire more Paramedics.
Once you take care of all rioting prisoners by recapturing the three wings, you will assist to another cutscene in the Canteen. This time, the CEO will reveal that the mastermind behind his dirty doings is Mayor Calvin Heller himself, who acquires more votes the more years the prisoners spend behind bars. In order to shut every mouth regarding the matter, Mayor Heller will deploy Armed Police who will open fire in the Canteen, leaving no survivor.
Mayor Calvin Heller: "The facility is under control, and the rioters have been subdued. It could easily have turned out a lot worse. We've got one hell of a clean-up operation ahead of us. I'd appreciate your help with that, if you've the time. We don't have any building contractors on site, so the first step will be to hire some new workmen to get to work repairing the place. I always thought security here was too lax. These inmates have been given too much free rein for too long. That stops today. I want you to build us a new Armoury, then deploy armed guards at key positions around the prison. The sight of that will subdue these prisoners and they'll think twice about causing this much trouble again. I'm also approving the funds to provide body armour to all guards on side. Our men need to be able to defend themselves."
Mayor Calvin Heller: "We've a few other requirements. There are a lot of prisoners who need to be taught the error of their ways. Build a new Solitary Confinement wing. Our guards will take care of moving inmates to Solitary as required. Solitary Confinement gives inmates time to reflect on what they've done, and reminds them who is in charge around here. There's a lot to do here. We really appreciate your help. Once you feel you've done enough and are ready to move on, click on the polaroid by the front gates."
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Even if the riot is subdued, don't take it easy, as the Danger Level is very high and prisoners can start rioting all over again at any time. Be sure you have deployed your Guards in every room, and keep the Riot Police around for now, while you work at these new objectives.
Open the Bureaucracy screen (the icon in the top let corner of the screen, next to the Todo list) and click on 'Armoury' to research it. It costs $2,000 and it takes 2 in-game hours to unlock. While we wait for it, let's build a solitary wing so that your prisoners waiting for punishment won't be stuck forever in their cells. The plot of land between the central and left-most wing seems good for it. Solitary cells are not like normal cells, they have no size or object requirement. You can still put whatever you want in them to satisfy the prisoner's need while they're being punished, so that once they leave it they won't do so in bad mood. In order to complete the objective you need 5 more Solitary cells, but I suggest you to build more than that.
| Stationed or patrolling Guards do not leave their job to escort prisoners to Solitary cells, so you should hire more guards and leave them 'free' if you want them to take care of this task. |
| In order to placate your prisoners, you can hire a few Cooks so that at least the Food need is taken care of. You can also build another Office and hire a Psychologist to have a better view on what they need. You can also take your time to fix the western wing, rebuilding walls and utilities, if you still have prisoners in excess. |
Once the Armoury has been unlocked, go back in the Bureaucracy screen and select both 'Tazers' and 'Body Armour' to research them one after the other; they both cost $1,000 and require 1 in-game hour each to unlock.
To build an Armoury, lay down the foundations and add a door to them; once the building is ready, add the required objects and designate it as 'Armoury' through the Rooms menu:
- Weapon Rack
- Guard Locker - one for every Armed Guard you want to hire
- Table
Remember to set the Armoury as 'Staff Only' area through the Deployment menu, so that your Prisoners can't access it.
Now you can hire Armed Guards from the Staff menu. To complete the objective, create a patrol path through the Deployment > Patrols menu and assign two Armed Guards to it. Now you can dispose of your Riot Guards, as their presence increases the Danger Level.
Once you have completed all the optional objectives, Mayor Hellen will call you to assign you a new batch of quests:
Mayor Calvin Heller: "Excellent work. I think the security of this facility is looking much stronger now. Let's continue. These prisoners need discipline. Order in their lives. I suggest we put them to work tidying up the mess they've made. Start up a labour program for our inmates, and put them to work cleaning the prison and doing the laundry. You can assign prisoners to work from the toolbar, under Logistics. And let's not forget the staff, who made it through this ordeal with us. They are exhausted. Build a staff room somewhere to give them somewhere to recover. Finally, we need to bring all of this on a budget. Make sure we have a positive bank balance and cash-flow. Prisoner labour is substantially cheaper than contractors when it comes to cleaning, janitorial work, laundry and the like. There's a lot to do here. We really appreciate your help."
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Let's build a Laundry and a Cleaning Cupboard to put your prisoners to work. You should know the procedure by now: build the foundations, add a door, designate the room, add the required objects. Build the rooms big enough so that you can assign to them many prisoners.
| Both the Laundry and the Cleaning Cupboard have as a requirement a minimum size of 3 x 3; this DOES NOT MEAN they need a total surface of 9m2, but that within the space designated there must be at least a square of side 3m (with no walls in it). |
| The total surface of a room is indicative of how many prisoners can work in it, if they can. For example, you can assigned a prisoner every 4 m2 to work in the Cleaning Cupboard or the Laundry. |
Now that the rooms are ready, open the Logistics menu, select 'Prison Labour' and click many times on the Laundry and the Cleaning Cupboard to assign working slots in them. The bigger the rooms, the more prisoners can be assigned to work there at once, the faster you will complete the relative objectives. Don't forget to add Work hours in the Regime, or else no prisoner will ever work in there.
While you wait for your prisoner to do their job (you can help them by hiring a few Janitors), build a Staff Room in a central area of your prison. The objects required for it are:
| Remember to always assign your Staff Rooms as Staff Only through the Deployment menu, so that your prisoners won't have access in there. This is particularly important if you have the Going Green DLC installed, as Drinks from the Drink Machine are contraband. |
| Unless Staff Needs is enabled in the Map Settings, the size and content of any Staff Room - aside from its requirements - is irrelevant, as Staff members can crowd into it with no downside and they will never use any of its furniture. |
For the last objective, unless you have hired too many staff members, you should have a positive Cashflow already. You can check your Daily Cashflow at the top of your screen. If it's negative, try firing some Guards or Workmen until it turns green. If you have too many deaths too frequently, your cash flow might go well below zero; it that case, just wait for it to turn back up with time, trying to have as little incidents as possible.
That really is. Once you're ready to leave for the next chapter, click on the polaroid in the top right side of the map.
Trivia[]
Armed Guards arrive at your prison re-named as Armed Police; They arrive as a group of 4 in a Riot Van
The police officers that the mayor Called to finish off Benedict cannot be called on emergency teams.
Gallery[]
