Prison Architect Achievement Guide & Road Map

Prison Architect
Prison Architect Achievement Guide

Overview:
- Estimated achievement difficulty: 3/10 [Achievement Difficulty Rating]
- Offline: 30 [990]
- Online: 1 [10]
- Approximate amount of time to 1000: 60-80 Hours [Estimated Time to 100%]
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1 Prison Stories playthrough, 10 Prison Warden Maps & 5+ Prison Architect Maps
- Missable achievements: None
- Does difficulty affect achievements: Yes - Most achievements don't unlock on 'Custom' difficulty
- Unobtainable/glitched achievements: "Prison Economics" [which also affects "The Chief"]

Introduction:
Prison Architect is a prison construction and management simulation game. Where you get to design, build and manage your own prison. The console version is missing some features from the original PC release but plays pretty well with a controller and includes the addition of a Prison Warden mode where you can manage pre-built prisons.

Most of the achievements don't unlock on Custom difficulty so make you the difficulty says: County, Federal or Super-Max. For most achievements I recommend playing on County difficulty as you start with the most money.

There is currently one glitched achievement - "Prison Economics" for completing all grants in the game. The only known way to unlock this is to purchase the Psych Ward DLC which has a new grant. If you choose not to purchase the DLC you also won't be able to unlock "The Chief" for unlocking all achievements. Its unknown if this will be fixed in the future.

Abbreviated Walkthrough:

Prison Stories
Prison Stories is a tutorial/story mode. There are five levels to complete and they are pretty easy. You can always see your current objective by pressing . Make sure you complete all optional objectives as there are achievements for doing so. Don't worry about completing a main objective before any optional objectives as the game won't move on until you select a snapshot giving you time to complete the optional objectives.

Completing this mode will unlock six achievements.

Prison Wardens
There are 10 prison warden maps that you need to play for 10 days in-game time. I would adjust intake/policy/build something etc. at the beginning so that the game judged me to have some involvement before putting the speed to full and then watching TV or something to pass the time until the 10th day finished (I waited until 8am on day 11 before quitting out).

On some of the bigger maps you might be able to unlock "Spare The Rod" for stopping a riot of 50 or more prisoners (I returned to one prison to see half of it burnt down, 100+ prisoners rioting and the majority of my guards dead!).

Upon completion you will unlock two more achievements.

Prison Architect / Mop Up
Before starting Prison Architect mode (presuming you have collected all of the Prison Stories snapshots), I would recommend to completely quit out of the game and reload it to help with the snapshot drop rate.

Prison Architect is a sandbox mode and where you finally get to design, build and manage your own prison. I recommend to play on County difficulty as you'll start off with more money.

You'll unlock the remaining achievements here over several prisons. Keep an eye out for any snapshots dropped on the floor and make sure to pick these up.

You'll probably need to build at least five different prisons to get all of the achievements and snapshots. One of these prisons will need to be a big efficiently run prison primarily targeting "D.B. Cooper", "Wait and Hope", "Get Busy Living" and "I Read A Book Once... Green It Was" You'll probably naturally unlock some of the other achievements as well. If you buy the DLC to unlock "Prison Economics" I recommend starting a new prison just for that as it needs to be done on Federal or Super-Max difficulty. The remaining prisons won't be as big or time consuming as you'll be able to quickly build a prison to target the specific snapshot or achievement that you require. See the individual achievement descriptions below for anything you might be missing.

If the snapshots don't drop after meeting the requirements (it's unlikely/impossible you'll get them all in one prison) then completely quit out and reload the game again before starting a new prison.

Finally you'll need to download a prison from the World of Wardens option on the main menu for the only online achievement.

Conclusion:
Although the Prison Wardens seems like an unnecessary and grindy addition, Prison Architect is a fun and easy completion (glitch aside).

[XBA would like to thank CheshireMulisha for this Roadmap]

2,000 volts

20
Complete all optional objectives on 'Death Row'
The first Prison Story. The optional objectives are:
- Build a Path to the new facility
- Add a Window to the Cell
- Add a Bookshelf to the Cell
- Redo the flooring with higher quality materials
- Create some outdoor lighting around the facility
Cosa Nostra

20
Complete all optional objectives on 'Palermo'
'Palermo' is the second Prison Story. The optional objectives are:
- Hire more workmen to speed up demolition
- Handle the Food needs of your prisoners
- Handle the recreational needs of your prisoners
- Handle the environmental needs of your prisoners
- Build a Laundrette
- Hire enough janitors to run your laundry
- Handle the clothing needs of your prisoners
- Start curing the inmates drug addictions
- Start helping the alcoholics through recovery
Crowd Control

20
Complete all optional objectives on 'G.A.B.O.S'
'G.A.B.O.S.' is the third Prison Story. The optional objectives are:
- Build a Staffroom
- Research Dogs
- Build a Kennel
- Hire 5 Dog Handlers
- Create three Dog Handler Patrols
- Research Tazer Rollout
- Build Classroom
- Set up a Guard Tazer Certification program
- Have 10 guards pass the Guard Tazer Certification program
Freedom

20
Complete all optional objectives on 'Bootstraps'
'Bootstraps' is the final Prison Story. The optional objectives are:
- Complete the Basic Detention Centre grant
- Complete the Administration Centre grant
- Complete the Security Procedure Certificationgrant
- Complete the Inmate Health and Well-being grant
- Complete the Prison Maintenance grant
Reformation

20
Complete all optional objectives on 'Conviction'
'Conviction' is the fourth Prison Story. The optional objectives are:
- Have 5 prisoners pass the Kitchen Safety and Hygiene program
- Have 10 prisoners pass the Workshop Safety Induction program
- Create 100 License Plates
- Have 5 prisoners pass the Foundation Education program
- Build new cells, at least 120 total
Throw The Book At Them

100
Complete all of the Prison Stories
This will unlock after completing the 'Bootstraps' mission.
It's Not What You Know…

100
Unlock all Snapshots
There are 155 snapshots in the game. The first 143 are un-missable and unlocked by completing the prison story missions.

The final 12 are unlocked in Prison Architect/Warden mode after meeting specific requirements. Although just meeting a requirement doesn't guarantee unlocking the snapshot and if you've met a requirement and the snapshot doesn't drop then you'll have to start a new prison (meeting the requirement again won't unlock it). It might take multiple attempts/prisons to get a snapshot to drop.

The snapshots are dropped on the floor and you have to pick them up for them to count within a couple of hours of in game time (recommended that you play on standard speed)

It is recommended to unlock these after completing prison stories and after getting all other achievements as you could pick these up during normal play in Architect/Warden mode. After completing Prison Stories and before hunting for the final 12, I would also recommend to completely quit out of the game and relaunch before starting a new prison. Also if the snapshots start to dry up, completely quit out of the game again and start a new prison when you relaunch.
It's extremely unlikely (Impossible?) that you'll unlock all 12 in one prison.

You can see what snapshots you've collected by going into the Options & Extras menu.
- The Warden - Unlocked by placing the Warden (use the original Warden) in his office at the beginning of the game.
- Yard Fight - Unlocked during a fight in the Yard. Lock (click twice on a prison door so it won't open) a load of prisoners in the Yard with a guard. After a while they'll get fed up and attack the guard.
- Prison Life - Can be dropped by a prisoner in his cell. Increase the locked up time in the prison regime to increase the chance of this dropping.
- Solitary Confinements - Build a 2x2 solitary confinement cell with nothing in it (some people have reported it unlocking with a bed in so best to build both types of cells). Make sure there are no water pipes underneath it and it should drop.
- Bangup - The same as Solitary Confinement but unlocks in any solitary cell (dropped for me using a quick build solitary cell).
- Phone Home - Dropped by a prisoner using a phone in the yard.
- Kitchen - Dropped by a cook in the kitchen. Best to set both the meal quality and variety to high to increase the chances of this dropping.
- Canteen - Dropped by prisoners during meal time in the canteen.
- Hygiene matters - Employ a janitor and follow him around the prison. Should drop when he cleans something.
- Medical Attention Required - This is dropped when a guard or inmate is being treated by a doctor. Could be dropped in the Infirmary or anywhere else a doctor treats their patient.
- Recreation Incarceration - Unlocks in the common room. Set a lot of free time for the prisoners and close off the yard to increase the chances of them using the common room.
- The Gun Show - Unlocked when a prisoner uses the weight bench. Unlocked for me after I added some benches to the canteen.
Visitation

10
Run a prison in Prison Warden mode for 10 in-game days
See "Inspectorate Of Prisons"
Inspectorate Of Prisons

30
Run every Prison Warden prison for at least 10 in-game days
There are two ways to unlock this. If you have the All Day And A Night DLC you can unlock both achievements by just completing The Lap of Luxury map. If not you'll need to play the original 10 Prison Warden maps up until day 11 (I played until after 8am on day 11).

The 10 maps are; Green Beach, Piano Island Prison, Paradise City, Eye of the Storm, Centre Luxus, The Penaldome, The Castle, Cove Park Prison, Ironfort and Forever Inn.

I would adjust intake/policy/build something etc. at the beginning so that the game judged me to have some involvement before putting the speed to full and then watching TV or something to pass the time until the 10th day finished.
HM Prison Services

10
Download a prison from the World of Wardens
Go to the World of Wardens option from the menu and download any map.
Spare The Rod

10
Stopped a riot of 50 or more prisoners in Prison Architect or Prison Warden mode
This is possible to be unlocked naturally during some of the larger Prison Warden maps by in-taking the maximum number of prisoners you can house and waiting for the tinder box to explode.

To get this in Prison Architect mode build a large holding cell and fill it with 100+ beds. Fill the cell with prisoners and lock them in it. After a while they'll start to riot. Wait until the screen says 50+ are rioting and then employ a load of guards and/or bring in the riot squad to end the riot.
Don't Put Me In The Dark

20
Execute a prisoner on death row in Prison Architect mode
The below will unlock the achievement but it will probably hurt the value of your prison so I suggest turning auto-save off before doing the below and then reloading or waiting until you can lawfully execute a prison if its in a prison that you want to keep.

Before you can execute a prisoner you need to hire a lawyer and research Death Row in the bureaucracy menu. Then build a cell block and set the security zone to death row prisoners and an execution room.

Next in-take a death row prisoner and click on him and scroll across until you get the option to execute him. There will now be five stages to the execution that you'll need to confirm and the achievement will unlock once the prisoner is dead.

If you would rather "lawfully" execute a prisoner you'll also need to build a parole room and then set up the Death Row Appeal program. The prisoner will then get several chances to appeal his execution before you can lawfully execute him. 90% of the time the prisoners appeal will be successful so I'd suggest building 5-10 cells and in-taking the maximum number of death row prisoners over a couple of days. Your lawyer can also research Reduce Execution Liability which will speed up the process slightly.
Iron Bars

40
Build a prison with 250 prisoners in Prison Architect mode
See "Confined"
Confined

100
Build a prison with 500 prisoners in Prison Architect mode
An easy way to get 500 prisoners is to build a large holding cell and place 500 beds in it. Then just keep in-taking the maximum number of prisoners until you hit 500.
D.B. Cooper

30
Sell a prison and make over $1,000,000 profit in Prison Architect mode on a standard difficulty
You can see your prison value from the Valuation section of the Reports menu. The value of your prison can be improved by increasing the physical size of your prison (buildings, extra land, etc.). The amount of staff you employ, prisoner capacity and number of prisoners. You'll lose value for any bank loans and escapes or deaths in the last 24 hours.

You'll need to build a reasonably big and efficient prison to increase the value and once the value gets to over $1 million you can sell it from the Valuation screen.

Selling the prison doesn't stop you from continuing to build/manage it so as soon as you have a sellable prison for $1,000,000 you should sell it.

You also won't be able to sell your prison if you have any deaths or escapes in the last 24 hours.
Samuel Norton

30
Have a cash flow of $50,000 or more in Prison Architect mode on a standard difficulty
The daily cash flow is the top right number on the screen (green is profit and red is loss).

The best way to improve your profit is to fill your prison with as many prisoners as possible. Other ways include having an efficient workshop and successfully paroling prisoners.

Once you have a few hundred prisoners in your prison go into the Reports menu and look at the Finance option and wait for the daily income to be over $50,000 here (turn off autosave if you want to keep the prison). You can then fire all of your staff and cancel any reform programs to cut your expenditure which will then increase your daily profit to $50,000.
Wait and Hope

20
Unlock all Bureaucracy items in Prison Architect mode on a standard difficulty
You need to unlock all bureaucracy items in one prison which takes a lot of time and money. You'll need to hire a Warden, Chief, Accountant, Lawyer and Foreman and build offices for them before you can unlock all of the items. Most of the items are cheap and easily affordable but some of Lawyer items cost $50,000 to research so you'll need to have an efficient prison making profit (from grants, prisoner intake, early parole, workshops etc.)
Get Busy Living

30
Achieve a reoffending rate of 25% or lower in Prison Architect mode on a standard difficulty
You need to have at least 10 prisoners released with a reoffending rate of 25% or lower (you can check the re-offending rate in the pause menu).

To lower the re-offending rate you need to give your prisoners reform and skills. Create programs to give them an education as well as training them up in the kitchen and workshop. As well as programs to help cure their drug and alcohol dependencies.

You also need to make sure your prisoner have good health by feeding them daily and giving them yard time.

Finally you can build some parole rooms (make sure to create a parole program for each room) and set the parole re-offending rate to below 25% to lower the average (in the Policy section of the Reports menu).
Prison Economics

30
Complete every Grant available to one prison in Prison Architect mode on a standard difficulty
This achievement is currently glitched! The only known way to unlock this is to purchase the Psych Ward DLC which contains a new grant. Its unknown if this will be fixed or not in the future.

If you buy the Psych Ward DLC you'll need to play a prison on Federal difficulty to be able to accept insane prisoners.

You can access the available grants from the Grants part of the Reports menu. Not all grants are available at the beginning and some will unlock upon completion of other grants. You can only have two active grants at a time but your Accountant can research an extra grant through Bureaucracy.
You'll also need to research a lot of the Bureaucracy items to be able to complete all of the grants and have at least 3 hours of uninterrupted work time in the Regime to complete some of the Programs.
- Administration Centre - Build two Offices, Hire a Warden and Accountant (requires Finance)
- Basic Detention Centre - Build a Holding Cell, Shower, Canteen, Kitchen and Yard. Hire two Guards and two Cooks.
- Carpentry Apprenticeship Program - Produce 10 Superior Beds. Your prisoners need to complete the Workshop Safety Induction and Carpentry Apprenticeship Programs before they can be assigned to work in the Workshop and craft the beds. You'll need to have Workshop Saws and Carpentry Table in your Workshop as well as a Forestry area to get the wood.
- Cell Block A/B/C/D/E - Build 25/50/100/200/500 Cells. You can complete these grants by building 1 large Holding Cell and filling it with 500 Beds. You don't need to actually in-take 500 prisoners to complete the grant.
- Crackdown on Drugs - Find 10 Drugs. Should be easily found by your Guards, start a Shakedown if you want to speed this up.
- Governmental Security Ratings - Assign two Dog Handlers and two Armed Guards. The Dog Handlers require Kennels and the Armed Guards require an Armoury along with an individual Guard Locker.
- Health and Well Being - Build an Infirmary. Hire two Doctors and a Psychologist (requires an Office).
- Inmate Nutrition Research - Serve one low quality and low quantity meal for two days and then server three high quality and high quantity meals for two days. I'd recommend doing this early before you have too many prisoners. You need to change the Regime so that the prisoners only get one meal a day and also change the meal quantity and quality to low in the Policy option. Then after two days change the Policy to high meal quantity and quality along with three meals in the Regime. Also make sure that the Regime is set the same for all prisoner classifications.
- Max-Sec Infrastructure Implementation - Hire 20 Guards. Research Tazers and Body Armour. Build a CCTV Monitor (in the Security room) and a CCTV Camera.
- Prison Maintenance - Hire a Foreman (requires an Office), two Janitors and one Gardener.
- Prison Manufacturing Facility - Produce 30 License Plates. You need to build a Workshop with a Workshop Saw and Workshop Press. The prisoners need to complete the Workshop Safety Induction program before they can be assigned to work in the Workshop. Remember to build an Exports area to sell the License Plates!
- Prisoner Acclimatization and Engagement - Assign three prisoners to work in the Laundry, Kitchen and Cleaning Cupboard. Any prisoner can work in the Laundry or Cleaning Cupboard but they need to complete the Kitchen Safety and Hygiene Program before they can work in the Kitchen. Make sure the Laundry and Kitchen aren't designated as Staff Only.
- Security Procedure Certification - Hire a Chief (requires an Office), 10 Guards and assign three Guards to Patrol Routes.
- Short/Long-term Investment - Costs you $5000 to start. The Short-term Investment will payout after three days and the Long-term will pay out after 7 days.
- Staff Well-being Initiative - Build a Staff Room, ensure none of your staff are exhausted and have five Guards without assigned duties. Assigned duties could include; patrols, deployed to a room, in-taking prisoners, performing a shakedown etc. So just make sure that you have five free when you take the grant.
- The Reform through Education Initiative - Build a Classroom and 20 School Desks. Have 10 prisoners pass the Foundation Education Course and 1 prisoner pass the General Education Course. I'd recommend building at least two Classrooms and then schedule the two course from the Programs menu. It takes 20 days to complete the General Education Course (10 days to complete the Foundation Course and 10 days to complete the General Course). So you'll probably need to start this as early as possible with some Medium Security prisoners and hope they stay in your prison long enough to complete both courses (frustratingly only a small percentage of prisoners that pass the Foundation Course take up the General Course). I'd recommend not having any parole programs actively running to reduce the chance of prisoners leaving early.
- Tool Cleanup - Remove the supply of stolen Tools and Weapons. Just perform a couple of Shakedowns until you find all of the Tools and Weapons. If you get lucky you might find them all on your 1st one. If not keep repeating until you find them all.
- Visitation Rights - Build a Visitation Room with three Visitor tables and build a Common Room with a Pool Table, two TVs and five Phone Booths (if you have the items in other rooms of your prison they will count towards this grant).
- Criminally Insane Wing - This is the Psych Ward DLC grant. Hire two Psychiatrists (each one requires an Office) and Build 10 Padded Cells (Padded Cells have the same requirements as normal Cells and you can even rezone any empty Cells into Padded Cells) then in-take 10 Insane prisoners (Insane prisoners will only use Padded Cells and normal prisoners are unable to use them).
The Justice System

30
No deaths, escapes or riots for 10 in-game days in Prison Architect mode on a standard difficulty
To get this you need at least one prisoner in your prison without incident for 10 days straight.

Start a new prison and build three Luxury Cells along with the usual other required rooms (Canteen, Kitchen, Yard etc.) then in-take three Minimum Security prisoners. You could do this with less but its safer with three in case any of them get released early.

If you hire a Psychologist you can monitor the prisoners needs and respond accordingly (build a Laundry if the Clothing needs gets high, or start a Pharmacological Treatment of Drug Addiction Program if the Drugs need gets high etc.)

You can also change the food Policy so that the prisoners get high quality and quantity meals. Also changing the Sleep to Free Time in the Regime menu will stop the prisoners attempting to tunnel out (the prisoners will still sleep but they only actively try to tunnel out during the Sleep period).

If any prisoners leave, just in-take another one so that you always have three in your prison at all times.
Rehabilitation & Reformation

30
Get 100+ prisoner's Drug & Alcohol needs below 25% in Prison Architect mode on a standard difficulty
You can check a prisoners needs from the Needs section of the Reports menu (requires a psychologist).

To reduce their drug needs you need to start a Pharmacological Treatment of Drug Addiction Program in the Infirmary.

To reduce their Alcohol needs you need to start a Alcoholics Group Therapy Program in the Common Room (each prisoner needs a chair [up to a maximum of 20] they won't use the sofas).

Setting up a couple of these Programs each day (or building multiple Infirmary's and Common Rooms to run multiple Programs simultaneously) will help keep the needs low.

Don't forget you'll need at least 100 prisoners in your prison to unlock this!
Failure To Communicate

10
Remove a gang from a held territory in Prison Architect or Prison Warden mode
This is the only prison that you'll play under a "Custom" difficulty. You could either start your own prison or to get it over quickly play on the Ironfort Prison Warden map.

Make sure that you turn Gangs On in Game Preferences (which will set the difficulty to Custom) before you start from the menu (you'll know that Gangs are enabled when you start because the Common Rooms and Yards will have a symbol over them).

When you start the game there are two Cell Blocks containing 20 Cells on either side of the map (Middle Left and Middle Right). Designate 1 of these blocks to Super Max (including the other rooms in that block. Yard, Common Room, etc.)

In-take as many Medium and High Security Prisoners as you can and you'll notice a new option in the Prison Running menu called Gangs (it requires the research of Intelligence and doesn't appear until you have one gang member). Keep in-taking prisoners until you have five members of the same gang. Now select each prisoner in the gang with the and select Security to change their security rating to Super Max. Once all five gang members are set to Super Max they should all be housed together in the Super Max Cell Block you designated earlier.

Change the Super Max Regime so that they have a lot of Yard time and they should take over the Yard.

Once they have taken over the Yard (the icon will change). You can then click on the icon and instruct your Guards to take it back (you can hire a load of Guards as money shouldn't be a problem for you!). They should take it over without any trouble although it does take a few in-game hours and the achievement will unlock.
Prison Hotel

30
Exceed 50 prisoner's cell entitlement at once in Prison Architect mode on a standard difficulty
An easy way to do this is to start a new prison on County difficulty and build 50 Improved Cells. Once they are built wait until you can in-take 50 prisoners at once and in-take them all into your prison and the achievement should unlock shortly after receiving the prisoners.
Minimum Security Prison

30
100+ prisoners have less than 10% 'Critical' needs in Prison Architect mode on a standard difficulty
The easiest way to unlock this is to start a new prison and build at least 105 cells and once they are built wait until you in-take the 100+ prisoners that you can house at once and the achievement should unlock shortly after receiving the prisoners.
Working Prison

30
Export 100 license plates from a single prison in Prison Architect mode on a standard difficulty
To complete this you need to build a Workshop containing Workshop Saws and Workshop Presses and research Prison Labour.

Make sure you have work time enabled in the Regime and create a Workshop Safety Induction Program and assign prisoners to work in the Workshop from the Logistics section of the Prison Running menu.

Finally create an Exports area so that you can sell the License Plates once they have been created and after you'll eventually unlock the achievement once your prisoners have made and sold 100 (make sure you have Workmen free to move the License Plates).
Oh My God, They Found Tom

10
Discover and repair an escape tunnel
You'll probably unlock this naturally. When your prisoners are sleeping some of them will try to tunnel out through their toilets. Perform a Shakedown every couple of days and eventually your Guards will discover a tunnel. From the Construction menu select Demolish and then Remove Tunnel and highlight the tunnel to repair it.
Prison Industrial Complex

10
Purchase your first plot of additional land
You need $80,000 to purchase a plot of additional land.

To unlock this quickly start a new prison on County difficulty and build two Offices. Hire a Warden and research Finance. Then hire an Accountant and research Land Expansion. Then scroll to the edge of your prison and you'll get the option to purchase a new plot of land by selecting it.
I Read A Book Once, Green It Was

30
Have 10 prisoners pass General Education in Prison Architect mode on a standard difficulty
This achievement can take a while as you need to have 10 pass the course in one prison. I'd recommend building a prison that can house around 200 prisoners and runs pretty efficiently without many incidents as you'll need mainly Medium Security Prisoners (you can try it with Minimum Security prisoners but they might not stay in the prison long enough).

You'll need at least two Classrooms and then schedule the Foundation and General Education courses from the Programs menu (Eventually you'll want to build a third Classroom so that you can run two Foundation Courses. Depending on how many prisoners are interested you could build more).
You need to have at least 3 hours of uninterrupted Work time in the Regime.

It takes 10 days for a prisoner to complete the Foundation Course and only a small percentage of the prisoner that successfully complete this will go onto the General Education Course which takes a further 10 days.

I'd recommend not having any parole programs actively running to reduce the chance of prisoners leaving early.
Double Eleven

10
Play the game at 11:11 (am or pm)
Simply play the game at 11:11 in the morning or night!
The Chief

100
You've served your time and unlocked every Achievement in Prison Architect…you're free to go
The final achievement earned after unlocking every other achievement.