Deepbend Maximum Security Prison
"Deepbend, the toughest place to live south of the wastes. The inmates are tough, so we gotta be tougher. They may complain of 'abuse' and 'cruel and unusual punishment' but you know, they deserve every last kick"
-Darner Gearbend, Warden.
Deepbend is one of a kind. With five hundred guards on its payroll and nearly 40 miles of water in between it and the nearest coast it is widely believed to be the most secure place on the planet. It mostly houses terrorists and war criminals but occasionally a murderer is put behind the walls. Deepbend is primarily a prison, but also has a small income from inmate labor.
The layout of the prison is another thing that contributes to the security of the facility. On the surface is a large platform, much like an oil rig, that is anchored to the ocean floor. The actual cells are housed below the surface in several levels. Travel between levels is accomplished with an underwater elevator. About halfway down (300 feet) is the convict quarters, the inmates are housed two to a cell, the cells are cramped, measuring 10x10 each. A mess hall takes up the rest of the room on this level. Approximately 60 prisoners are housed on this level, but it varies depending on the time of day. A few feet below the first cell level there is another, identical one.
The next level is solitary confinement and the kitchen. This level is about 50 feet below the main quarters. Inmates are sent to solitary for misbehavior or on the whim of a guard. Solitary are 5 feet by 10 feet and the walls are solid metal. The kitchen is where inmates prepare food for the entire prison. It comes partly made so mostly the inmates are do mixing and heating, knifes are not allowed. Food is delivered to levels via the elavator.
Another 200 feet below solitary lies the maximum security cells. These cells are for the worst of the worst, and only one person is allowed per cell. The inmates eat in their cells, having no mess hall, and are entirely confined to their room. Exercise is taken care of with weights in each of their rooms and most of them will never see the light of day until they die. The cells are patrolled 24/7 by guards and the lights never go out. There are seven cells on this level, but only five are currently occupied.
Finally, lying 750 feet below the waves, is the work level. Here inmates are taken every other day to mine. A failed attempt to find a shipwreck years ago discovered a large deposit of precious metals, mostly silver, at the bottom of the ocean. When planning the prison, the designers came across the journal of one of the explorers who found the deposit. They decided to build the prison over this vein of minerals in order to exploit it. Prisoners are lowered down in a diving bell the final 20 feet to the ocean floor. They then begin a three-hour shift in which they mine for ore. Ore is transported back to the surface with a separate elevator, then it is shipped back to mainland on a boat.
Every day a sixth of the inmates are taken to the surface and “exercised” pumping oxygen for the prison and running the ore elevator. They are watched closely, and worked for around ten hours. This builds up enough pressure in the air tanks that the next 14 hours can run entirely on them. All inmates in Deepbend are in for life, however due to the conditions and work, that life may not be long.
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? Responses (15)
This is all nit picky and I apologize in advance.
This is definitely a semi secure prison. However it bespeaks of one in a movie i saw once. With the exception of the mining area it is near identicle.
The size of the rooms seem off to me as well a ten by ten room is not a normal sized room for two inmates to be considered cramped. Most of the rooms I've delt with (I worked in the prison system not a member) were eight by ten and those were considered very large for two people. Five by eight were common.
The idea of the inmates in solitary having weights is a very bad idea. Assuming there are facilities for them to use the bathroom what is stopping them from flooding the rooms and then using the weights as weapons? Also having the kitchen on the solitary level also is dangerous if the kitchen is run by the inmates. It should be on the top level away from inmate living quarters. Even though knives are not allowed it is a functioning kitchen and there are a lot of utensils that can be used or fashioned into makeshift weapons. Rolling pin anyone?
All that being said, there are more I will just slow down on the harsh critique, this also has some ideas to pull from. Making the inmates work 750 feet under the water is an interesting idea. The can run but where? Without a breathing apparatus they would drown before getting to the surface. Also making the inmates responsible for pumping air into the prison is interesting.
I don't find this a bad sub but I just don't find enough draw to it for me to make it say Whoa! It's a prison and underwater. Cool but it's been done. Add some plot hooks or some NPC personalities to make it stand out and it may just do it for me.
Sorry for the long and potentially harsh critique.
Awesome. Edit time!
Harsh critique is great. You develop an immunity after a while and usually the more harsh the more true. I'll get right on it.
Also, what movie specifically? Sounds like something I would want to watch.
Face Off with Nicholas Cage and John Travolta
Funny how I thought the same thing..
Fun. I like the imnates having to pump in the air on treadmills.
This is a good start. When reading this, I thought of about a dozen questions that I would want answered if I was a PC in this environment. Here are a few:
1. Emergency procedures. What happens in the event of a natural disaster, hull breach etc? Are the prisoners left to drown, or would there be an opportunity to escape?
2. The elevator can't really be the only way to move between levels, right? Otherwise, what happens when the power goes out?
3. If 5 of the maximum security cells are occupied, it'd be neat to have a list of those inmates' names and what they were in for. Are they gang leaders? I bet there are lots of stories/legends circulating about them on the prison floor, so having that info would be nice.
A very clever detention center. I like the thought you've put into how it would operate.
A nice easily useable detention center, it's got just enough detail a busy GM can pick it up and run with it with very little prep time. The maps are a nice touch as well.
Seems like the start of a good idea. Adding to Mourn's thoughts, though;
There's some physical engineering issues here. While gravity can be mitigated underwater, you appear to be cantilevering everything off the elevator shaft, and this is... difficult. Water moves, alot, and it will cause large pods 'hanging' off of structures to sway - and eventually snap. But that can be dealt with easily enough with a little bit of knowhow, and if no one in your group has the knowhow, it doesn't matter much for versimilitude anyway.
The bigger problem I see, though, is really one of scale. This is an expensive facility, and very small. Basically, to be worth it, it has to be a supermax, and then some, but it just doesn't seem to have that. You have provisions for 125 prisoners - and no provisions for the 500 guards, who can't possibly be commuting home every shift. Even with half the guards on the payroll ashore at a time, that's one inmate per 2 guards on shift - with 2-3 days off a week for the guards. Everything has to be shipped in and out, probably daily to weekly. Power has to be generated out there. Every prisoner will cost millions per year - and silver ore can run as low as $100 a ton, depending on how rich it is.
This is not a prison for 'Terrorists and War Criminals', this is a prison for Adolph.
Another thing I thought of, since the entire complex is run off of 14 hour batteries that are charged daily by inmate power... what happens during a huge storm? Say a four or five day hurricane plows through the area. it will be impossible to throw the inmates on the roof of this floating bobber to withstand 75 mile and hour winds, if your lucky, to be able to recharge the generator that will only last for 14 hours which takes ten hours to fiully charge the air supply and generator. I agree with Siren that this complex is far to small to be cost efficient even in a magical fantasy world where we can get magic to do for us that manual labor couldnt. Just another observation.
This has a good foundation to start from. I would incorporate many of the suggestions in the comments if I were to use this in a game.
this is well presented and clear, it could use a little personality, maybe some history, notable innimates, a couple of vignettes or something more