They bring up useful sounding programs, like arts & crafts that are then sold to the general public, as well as a restaurant you can go to in a prison, staffed by prisoners. But these anecdotal cases, while certainly appealing, belie a massive system with far-reaching economic effects, especially in the U.S. with its wildly out-of-proportion prison population.Understanding the history of prison labor in the U.S. is vital to understanding the shape it takes today. One of its foundational purposes was as a response to the end of slavery and the reconstruction era. Throughout the South, recently freed black people were arrested en masse for any number of arbitrary crimes, such as loitering or failing to provide proof of employment. Prisons then leased their convicts to private companies to do the same kind of brutal labor that they had just been freed from.A prison work plan is always going to be there because it's such a wonderful combination of: a method to raise funds for your prison and also a method to help reform and rehabilitate your prisoners.
At simulating the dehumanizing bureaucracy that is necessary in the running of prisons, Introversion did great. But the parts that were left out speak volumes. Van Jones in 13th describes humanity as the opposite of criminality. From the cold distance which you administer your prison, all you're dealing with are criminals. From the privileged remove of someone not dealing with being black or poor in America, with the long brutal history and legacy of slavery, prisons are fine as they are, and prison labor is functioning as it should.But according to 13th and the thousands of prison strikers who yearn to have their voices heard, all is not as it should be. Legal protection is absent. Exploitation and overwork is rife. The system itself is inextricable from its historical relationship with slavery. Games like Prison Architect and other prison-related media we consume should seek to connect the fictional and simulational with real world context.By presenting prison labor without that context, as merely another profit source to help run your prison, Prison Architect reflects the image that prison administrators themselves wish to present. By only boosting the positive aspects of prison labor such as vocational programs, the game inadvertently presents an image in line with the PR message of prison corporations. It ignores the deleterious effects of prison labor on prisoners and society. And finally, by refusing the prisoners the ability to strike and protest their treatment in a way that isn't random violence, Prison Architect misses a crucial distinction. There's a vast difference between the act of rioting and striking. But in only acknowledging the former, Prison Architect doesn't recognize the humanity in the latter.Have thoughts? Swing by Waypoints forums to share them!We are putting you in the shoes of somebody who has to build a system that can hold hundreds, if not thousands, of prisoners. And so the net result of that is that players naturally withdraw slightly from any individual prisoner's concerns and start thinking of them as a group, as a whole. I would go so far as to say that was a design aim of the game, to give you that experience of feeling distanced from the humanity of what you're trying to make.