How To Get Prisoners In Prison Architect

Prison Architect gives you multiple options for controlling prisoner intake into your facility. Whether you want to fill your prison to capacity, set a specific number, or receive prisoners at a steady rate, the intake system provides the flexibility you need to manage your prison population. This guide walks you through accessing the intake menu and explains each available option.

Accessing the Intake Menu

To begin managing your prisoner intake, navigate to the bottom right corner of your screen and click on Reports.

Once the Reports menu opens, click on Intake to access the prisoner intake settings.

Prisoner Intake Options

The Intake menu displays several different methods for receiving prisoners into your facility. Each option gives you control over how many prisoners arrive and when they arrive.

Close

Selecting Close will stop all prisoner intake. No new prisoners will arrive at your facility.

Fill Capacity

If you click on Fill Capacity, the game will automatically send prisoners to your facility based on the number of vacant cells you have available. This option is useful if you want your prison to gradually fill up to its maximum capacity.

Total Prisoners

The Total Prisoners option allows you to set a specific total number of prisoners you want in your facility. Once you reach that number, intake will stop until you adjust the setting.

Number per Day

With Number per Day, you can specify exactly how many prisoners you want to receive each day. For example, if you set this to three, you will receive three new prisoners every day until you change the setting or close intake.

All Available

Selecting All Available will cause the game to send every available prisoner it can provide to your facility immediately. This is the fastest way to populate your prison but requires adequate facilities to handle the influx.

Summary

Managing prisoner intake in Prison Architect is straightforward once you access the Intake menu in Reports. Choose the option that best fits your gameplay style—whether you prefer steady daily intake, filling to capacity, or accepting all available prisoners at once. With these five intake options at your disposal, you have complete control over how quickly your prison population grows.

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