Erased should take care of your problem provided that you weren't pulled in on some high-profile biz. If you can be anonymous enough, all you have to do is get banged up and claim you just woke up in prison and you're being held without charge to one of the medical staff. They'll have you transferred over to a different facility, provided you're paid up with DocWagon. Besides all that, it's common practice to sneak pre-paid cellphones into prison these days. I imagine things will be similar in future jail. Hook up with a gang and buy access, then you just need to hit one of your software backup nodes (do tell me you've got offsite matrix storage) and start working on speeding up your release. Or just harass your team and tell them how stupid it is to let you rot, what with all you know about them.

If it was a high profile thing and you're in some kind of supermax prison, you've only got two options. First, you can try and get on cleaning detail or, far easier, hook up with a gang under the promise of cooking up drugs and then Doc Brown those bitches. Let them know you can cook betameth, and after a few sample runs, cook up your real business. Making explosives is easy. Making Whitestar is child's play. Making the kind of explosives you need to create shaped cutting charges is even easy enough to do in a prison cell with cleaning products. After making a sufficeint amount of ammonium nitrate (should take a couple months to get the chems to make enough,) then all you need is a rounded measuring cup from the mess to create the cone shape needed to direct the charge, a container to put the ammonium nitrate in, and some bleach and ammonia to mix (bleach heavy to make a nitrogen trichloride primer charge,) and blammo, holes through 2 inches of reinforced steel or 8 inches of reinforced concrete. So, worst case scenerio, and you can't possibly bargain or talk your way out, you could kill half the prison in a deadly cloud of gas and then start blowing your way out in the ensuing chaos.

Don't forget napalm. Essentially you need a flamable liquid and styrofoam. I doubt you could get your hands on gasoline, but you could probably snag lighters and drain their lighter fluid.

Remember: Napalm sticks to kids (and just about everything else). Makes for a good diversion while you make your escape: slather it on the ceiling* and floor around your escape hole location. Blow the hole, light the goo, and run. Could even go for a water balloon or bottle full of the stuff molotov cocktail style.

Hooking up with a few other guys looking to get out you could gather and brew supplies faster.

*This is important as it will drip flaming globs down, so jumping through the flames isn't much of an option.

Given that the character has a shitload of skill in the area I'd point out to the player that you can't make a useful shaped change with ANFO. It doesn't have a high enough detonation velocity. And nitrogen trichloride is a really crappy improvised explosive. It's a lot like Nitrogen Triiodide. You look at it cross-eyed and it goes off.

Also I like to point up that it really isn't conductive to your continued breathing to threaten to blackmail them if they don't help you escape. Seems like a case of being careful what you wish for...

In real life, yeah, but in SR, ANFO is just as effective as dynamite, and with a bit of tamping, you've got a DV9 breaching charge ready to go. The Nitrogen Trichloride is just meant to be the ignition source. ANFO takes a bit of work to set it off. Not thermite work, but still a little bit of ammonia in a tube capped with paper towels dropped into a container of bleach will help it blow the hell up, but not after you run away.

As to blackmail, Runners should expect to be blackmailed by a team mate that they've abandoned. It would be stupid as hell to trust that they won't roll over on you if you turn your back on them because you can't be arsed to help. Rule #1. Look out for yourself first.

Perhaps, I guess it depends on whether or not you believe the anti-snitching code is largely followed in the Shadows.

How did you even get into this situation again?

Why didn't you use your "one phonecall" to call your lawyer? Or even call your Fixers anonymous drop box and leave a message for him to get you a lawyer? (It's not like he can't take it out of your future contracts.)

Anyway, regarding team mates: do they owe you any personal loyalty, or are you just that guy who was brought in on this one run? If you can break yourself out, they can get you out much easier (you make inside contacts, they go to the mob boss; you get matrix access and hack, they have access to the matrix and programs already; you make explosives, they buy them; you bribe some guard or medic, they can use legwork to find who is on the take). So if they -should- break you out, then go ahead, make it personal. But if you're some guy, who maybe they worked with a few times, then it's all business chummer.

(Though I would break my fellow out on principle, if possible. Mutual reciprocity and all that. ...unless I REALLY hated the "dude.")

Problem: the same rule dictates them to put a bullet in the head of the snitch. Sure, they will get you out, but soon enough jail will look like heaven.

IRL ANFO bombs can be just as effective as dynamite... only in about 10-100 times the quantity. You literally need -vats- of the stuff to replicate what a dozen or so sticks of TNT would do. You're also leaving out half of the ANFO bomb. You have a method to create AN, but you can't just create FO, and I'm guessing the prison guard isn't going to bring you a few gallons of gasoline. AN and FO need to be mixed in roughly 1:1 (by mass) ratio to explode optimally.

Now what would be super easy is to mix up some bleach and ammonium and put it near the air vents and kill off half the prison population so they maybe move you all and then you can escape in that chaos. Just make sure to get something to act as a gas mask.

Oh, just thought of something. If you can contact the outside world at all, getting a vial of demolition (or whatever they're called) nanites could make the 'getting through a wall' part real easy.

I'm not sure how this has changed in 207x but here's how it works now a days:

You are caught by the police committing a felony. You are pat searched, and loaded into a cruiser, and transported to a temporary holding facility-Jail. Big cities have their own jails, however small ones tend to have a holding cell or two, and a drunk tank. They transport prisoners for long term holding to a centralized facility, usually in the county seat.

Once you reach the Jail proper you're generally booked in-finger printed, picture taken, LEIN and CMIS check (Basically a computer records search), and strip searched. You are issued a jump suit, a bed roll, 2 wash rags, and 2 towels. Most Jail's aren't set up for long term detention-they don't generally have school programs, or extensive recreation facilities. They're also not generally designed for seriously dangerous offenders-management risks, and highly assaultive offenders can be problematic in small jails. (Obviously places like LA, and Atlanta have better facilities!)

Once processed into Jail you also get access to the "Pods" phones-you are issued a pin number, which allows you to make collect calls, or pay to add minutes; commissary-a limited number of items ranging from cigarettes and candy bars to shower shoes and bars of soap. The biggest enemy of most people in Jail is boredom. Now you can easily stack these challenges with others-gangs, drugs, etc...etc...

In most Jails the food is prepared quickly from a pretty sparse menu-cold breakfast and lunches are common, with cheap and easy hot dinners. In most Jails trustees aid a food service steward in preparing the meals-these are generally low risk prisoners, who are non violent, and doing short periods of incarceration. Trustees also work in the laundries, yard crews (Cleaning and mowing public parks, and the grounds around the jail under supervision), porters (Cleaning the interior of the cells, jail and kitchens, etc...)

If you use the pod design for your jail you have cells along one wall, and a common area where prisoners congregate, eat and have access to a TV or two, as well as pay phones to make calls. All calls are recorded-and someone is supposed to listen to them at regular intervals. The good news is there are a lot of calls, and staff tend to be lazy when it comes to routine tasks. Unless you give staff a reason to listen to your calls, chances are they won't. Out going and incoming mail is searched, but again it's usually just one or two people who often have other duties as well. Visits tend to be non contact in most Jails, but in bigger Jails they have contact visiting rooms.

Escapes in most modern Jails happen in a few ways-the biggest however is during transportation. Most Jails end up transporting prisoners to various places: doctors, lawyers, courts, specialists, etc...Jails, unlike prisons, often don't know who they're dealing with-what kind of stuff they're capable of. Sometimes they find out the hard way. Physical Plant flaws are next-climbing through skylights, finding open or unlocked doors, etc....Obviously there are other ways. More and more jails are being connected to courthouses via physical plant (Tunnels), or they use telepresence for trials.

Once your trial is over and you've been sentenced it's time to go to real prison. You'll be taken to a regional Processing Center, and subjected to another strip search, a battery of tests-including psychological, physiological, emotional, educational, etc...You'll be classified into risk categories-management and assault, are generally the basic two. After that process is complete you'll be sent to whatever prison is appropriate for you.

In 2070, this should be how they issue a criminal SIN. But it should get Erased as anything else if you have the quality.

What does that Erased quality do exactly? Is is some sort of continual effect that keeps on erasing you from the system?

Yes. It's one of the extreme Positives qualities of the Companion that many GM are reluctant to accept. Any SIN/credit history/personal informationthat you don't wish to preserve are erased 24 hours after their input, except maybe in the most secure systems. No roll, no cost, it just goes 'poof'.

Which is why a team should automatically go after an incarcerated runner. If you get him out, he's got no reason to snitch. If you don't try to get him out you have to assume he will, so you need to get to him another way. Just leaving him to rot for 23 consecutive life sentences isn't really an option. These sorts of relationships need closure.

Honestly, a hacker like loki, I'd expect his ass to get snuffed by a gang the team paid to dispose of him, or I'd expect him to try and schmooze his way into the services of a local prison-powerful gang and run the matrix for them from behind bars.

Though this whole prison scenario brings up a quandary. How far would they go to rip all the tech out of a guy they're sending up? I imagine that jackstops won't really cut it when you've also got guys with titanium bones who can punch through walls.

It would depend on the relative costs of:

(1) preventative measures that are sufficient to be effective
(2) the actual surgery
(3) the cost of the drugs it would take to keep him docile for the duration of his incarceration

generally I would expect 1 and/or 3 to be the common choices, with only people who aren't druggable for whatever reason or too expensive to restrain any other way being the ones to go under the knife.

even then in some corps I'd expect them to just kill you and harvest the organs over spending all that money to make you 'safe'.

This is an interesting point of contention. Obviously employees in the Correctional system wouldn't want to face off with cybered and magically enhanced prisoners. So this certainly would be an issue that would get some attention.

Now assuming most people with combat cybernetics and magic probably don't have a license or permit to own let alone use the stuff I think one possibility would be for the government to confiscate anything it could, to cover expenses related to incarceration. Punitive fines-victims funds, crisis funds, restitution of other types-is pretty common even today. Ripping out wetware and reselling what you don't want would probably be a pretty profitable business in bigger Jails and prisons. Since the surgery wouldn't garner the sort of attention and safe guards a normal patient might get in a real hospital-hell in an pretty nasty extraterritorial spot or say a country with strong feelings on justice-Say The Tir; human rights might not even be a consideration.

Personally this is an area I'd look at what told the best story. How nervous could you make your player, before actually ripping stuff out? And once it's ripped out, they may want it back!

Add in virtual reality options, and well prison in 207x must be a real mind fuck.

Huh, that is a really good point. They would (legally speaking) -have- to rip out any illegal ware that they found in a person. Otherwise it is the same as letting them carry a gun into the jail more or less, or otherwise letting them walk away with anything else illegal.

Magic is a bit of a different issue though. I'd imagine those awesome little shock collar things going on spellcasters to shock the crap out of them whenever they try casting a spell. Not so sure what they could do about adepts though. I don't think those work on them. I suppose they'd have to resort to strait jackets or keeping them constantly cuffed or something similar. It would be an annoyance to the prisoner, but that wouldn't compare to the other option of having a full assault squad outside their cell every time they were let out. Now for low security prisoners, I'd imagine that they wouldn't really worry about adepts so much, basically relying on their good behavior to keep them from using their powers. Mages would likely still get the shock collars (I think they're cuffs actually, but collars sound way more future dystopia).

The only option I see for long-term incarceration of mages is mage cuffs plus full VR immersion.

I think the mage cuffs would be enough. Only takes them getting the crud shocked out of them once or twice to let them figure out not to do it again, no need to do full VR immersion. Even the most badass hard time mage you could just throw two sets of mage cuffs on them. Or heck, just blindfold them so they can't see to cast most spells, and leave two pairs of cuffs on them to make sure they go down if they try any touch spells.

Yeah, but if he somehow gets those cuffs off, he can basically start killing people with his mind. That's a poor risk to take.

Most prisoners don't wear restraints long term. Most General population prisons, and jail populations are unrestrained. Picking restraints is actually a pretty easy thing to do, so is breaking them. Given that anyone with enough time can eventually circumvent any security procedure or piece of equipment you would use a layered approach.

A warded cell block, that made use of bio-engineered Fab-Bac, back ground count or astral dead zones to stymy attempts at casting and conjuring along with sleep deprivation and chemicals engineered to mess with you would all be needed. You could even use Influence spells, or mind control stuff. All of this assumes you'll actually incarcerate someone with an incredibly valuable talent.

Another problem: what do they do with the mage after jail? Any illegal cyber will be confiscated and never returned, but how about illegal spells? Will they let a magical monster walk away freely? I don't see any way of having somebody forget a spell he knows (although my troll side says a big rock on the head should do ). There is always the way of taking his Magic out, but that sounds a bit harsh, except in the most magic-hating societies.

But still better than letting him get into a competitor's hands, or just plain loose.

You might be on something there. Mages simply don't go to prison. They are too valuable for that. They cut a deal with a corp to bail them out when they are caught.

Well, I'd imagine that a house mage would be kept on sight 24/7 and use that fiberoptic system to have a view of the whole place at all times, ready to counterspell and shoot back at the mage in question, as well as having a few spirits on hand to go kick butt.

I'd also figure that they would take extreme precautions with the mage at any time that the cuffs might possibly have any risk of getting loose (And once again why I suggested a collar, no reason to ever have it taken off, and much harder to mess with since you can't see it).

As for the multiple precautions thing. They could do a shock collar, a matching pair of shock anklets and bracelets, for 5 total shocking options, with only 1-2 functioning at a time, and set up to activate if any tampering is detected with the others. I agree that alot of precautions must be taken with someone as dangerous as a mage, but I don't think they'd generally resort to a regiment of drugs or sleep deprivation. A ward on each cell sounds like another good added precaution. Most jails wouldn't be able to have background counts, but there might be some high count areas that they take highly dangerous criminals to. A sort of "Mages only" prison. Well, maybe include non-mages since they are already making a high security facility.

As for illegal spells... well that is a good question. Stripping them of their magic seems overly harsh, and they'd be unlikely to be allowed to get permits for their spells after being in prison/jail of any kind. They could perhaps rely on a parole sort of thing, putting a tracer and such on them after they are out of prison and checking up on them every week or so to make sure it is still on and working. Not a 100% failproof thing, but sounds like the level of security you expect in SR.

Most security in SR is after all much more to keep Joe Wageslave in line than to truly prevent law breaking entirely.

We at Horizon have been dealing with this situation and are now ready to announce the External Emotion Suppression Neuro-net, or EESN(pronounced like reason) this small implant is attatched directly to the base of the skull and monitors the criminal's Neural activity. Any spike in brain activity activates the devices programs that override the criminal's own emotions. This calming effect is achieved by selectively intercepting the signals going to the hypothalamus. Best of all, our initial testing shows practically no long term effects to either life or magical ability in case the criminal is rehabilitated.

As with any new technology there are those who claim that EESN degrades or even harms the criminals it is designed for. Our research and testing says otherwise. The cases stated by our detrectors(whom we might add are selling a less tested device that is chemical based) of severe emtional damage has been repeatedly proven to have been caused by the subjects own faulty genetic material. We have no recorded cases of normal functional criminals experiencing anything other than the relaxed and passive responses to the.technology.

Write your correctional contractor and ask them if they use EESN technology.

Hehe. Just make sure not to let them read a book or anything. Might also help prevent planning escapes, because if you think too hard about them, you'll suddenly start feeling good and start thinking "Why would I want to leave here? It is so great here."

Going astral doesn't really require heavy emotional/mental content. It's done with meditation. But, so long as you've got a cuff-style solution to go with the brain spike, then it's golden.

Yep, and thus you are once again reliant on the cuffs. Like I said, just slap a couple on them to be safe and you're golden. If only stun didn't carry over to physical, you could slap a half dozen or so on them

How is that a problem? They have plenty of time to heal their wounds anyway.

Yeah, but each one individually does like 12S(e) damage or something like that. Even two has a fair chance of killing him. I'll have to go look it up again to get the exact number, but a half dozen would certainly result in dead mage.

Yeah, 12S damage, so even with just two you would risk killing the person from shock.

That's because PDs are lazy and cheap. If you use high security cuffs you get to pick a medeco lock, but then you have to transfer the keys with the prisoner. And despite what SR claims, decent quality locks are a really serious obstacle that you can't open with a pick gun.

Mages are easy, just rip out their baby blues and have astral overwatch ordered to use deadly force if the Mage ever goes dual natured despite the shock collar. Then you just make sure that the guards understand that touching a Mage is a really bad idea.


Between that and the nasty background count a Sixth World prison should naturally create most Mages stop being any more dnagerous than any other "special" prisoner.

Pick Guns in SR are future-tech; descriptions of them almost always include handwavium like nano-assembly and actually 'making' a key inside the keyhole.

while I'm sure you could create a mechanical lock that wouldn't be susceptible to in situ key construction by nano-bots, I would guess that that sort of lock would be more expensive than a biometric or maglock anyway and as such wouldn't be particularly popular.

It would probably look at lot like the EVVA MCS. Which is considered one of the best locks out there.

But, in SR they actually don't make any such claim. It's a pick gun, which in the comic books always opens locks without any skill. Just like shotguns hit everyone in a room and machine guns can't hit anyone because of the recoil.

Wow. That is a lock.

I'm sorry but you have no idea what you're saying here. The Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, which is definitely what leaving someone in restraints can qualify as if done improperly. Have you ever been restrained? Have you ever applied restraints beyond a pair of handcuffs? Not to mention the absurdity of leaving General Population prisoners in restraints pretty much means most prisons couldn't function, since the prisoners perform most of the menial labor. Even at the facility I work at, which is a Super Max most of the inmates aren't left restrained all of the time. Restraints are generally used for a few specific purposes-transportation, to prevent self injury or the destruction of property.

Maybe in the Dystopian Future this is an option, but currently it just isn't a reality. Even in the future I doubt it would be a serious option.

And along those lines, simply removing someone's eyes isn't really going to be an option. Heck, there is mention of mage hoods being bad PR, so I can't imagine what the outcry would be if general populace found out they were blinding people just so they'd be easier to detain.

Like I keep saying: Shock collar version of the magecuffs. They try drawing the mana to cast a spell, or astrally project, or do anything else, the thing goes off and zaps them for 12S damage. It also sends a warning that inmate 12849243 tried something, and he quickly gets a squad outside his cell, backed up with a mage (or two) via fiberoptics so they can blast him, but he can't blast them.

They then put a fresh new collar on him, and then remove the old one and go recharge it.

If the collar doesn't knock the prisoner out, then the prison mage throws the biggest freaking stunbolt he can manage right away, including overcasting, and gets medical and pay compensation for doing so.

Oh, and I didn't really think about this before, but I'd imagine every prison would keep a small hair sample from every single prisoner on hand to have ritual spellcasting done on him if he escapes (Which is really bad for our OP if he wants to try escaping). This actually means escaping would be -even more- difficult than just getting out, because you'd also have to go destroy whatever link they have on you first.

I'd think they'd do this in even the lowest security prisons, but the question is more if they would make any use of it. I'd think a low security prison would go for a 'more trouble and expense than it is worth' approach, while a supermax will have a coven of mages blasting you with ritual stunbolts every few seconds until you drop unconscious and are recovered.

There's no need to blind a mage. You could just make them wear digital display glasses/goggles that display exactly what they would normally see, but on digital screens inside the goggles. Suddenly they can see, but they don't have the required line of sight.

B R A I N D A N C E

The cost for running anything else, even for mundanes, makes it less than optimal, and remember that this isn't about human rights, it's about making a profit (i.e. charging more - which is hard to do - and reducing costs). This is especially true for mages.

Oh, putting in a datajack reduces your magical abilities? So sorry, maybe you should have thought of that before you committed a felony.

Meanwhile, your body floats in a suspension tank, Matrix-style.

If the prison doesn't recognize your character as a hacknomancer (or whatever your SR4 jibba jabba is), this could be to his benefit.

Given the price for the Hospitalized lifestyle, I doubt this would save any cost.

Hospitalized lifestyle isn't the same as a suspension tank. Hospitalized lifestyle is regular visits from a doctor, normal food, 24/7 nurses on call for a relatively small number of people, help getting you to the bathroom and scratching your butt, medication... You're comparing apples to audis.

Suspension tank is IV, with standard IV solution (cheaper than food, if you're running it in bulk), and probably something to regularly recirculate the fluid. When each person is in a tank 6.5'x3'x3', the amount you're paying is less than running a hotel. You'd have probably 3.5 nurses per 100 individuals (for 24/7 coverage) and 3.5 doctors per 500-800 individuals, plus a handful of guards, cameras and minimal service personal. You don't even need running water or lights for 90% of the facility. Everything is done in bulk, automatically, standardized, and watched by biomedical computers. The cost for insertion and removal, and for maintaining a Red host are the only real costs.

Sorry, I got the name wrong. There is a lifestyle for spending your whole life in full VR with your body kept under survival monitoring, and IIRC it is pretty expensive. But I don't remember in which book it is described

Full Immersion (Unwired p.38) - 30 000 per month

...though that includes "the benefits of the Hospitalized lifestyle", such as medical professionals, muscle toning and such.

Like nezumi said, dealing with bulk and with little regard to the well-being of inmates, the cost will go down. a lot.

Thanks

Have you ever had to wear a cast? Strength decreases very fast when in total inactivity. That medical care is not a comfort thing, it is the strict minimum that has to be done if the inmate is to ever leave the vat.

Where do you get that crazy idea from?

Oh, and don't forget to harvest their body's bio-electrical output for energy to power your drone army.

Now I am picturing SR prisons a lot more like Demolition Man kinda lock down. Cell block or ice block?

I have no respect for your 'Unwired' heresy, so I can't reference that. However, braindance is a pretty well established tradition in cyberpunk.

I would also be surprised that, given the space race, the price would be as all that for the sole purpose of keeping the person alive in VR, and able to walk out again in the indefinite future. While it probably costs $30,000/mo to keep an astronaut alive, I'm pretty sure that's mostly in the cost of getting supplies up there, not for the purpose of keeping the body reasonably toned. With that new technology allowing for electric pulses to make your muscles contract, $30k/mo seems pretty far out there unless you're including letting you actually get out of that tank now and again (or putting you in very nice surroundings made just for you, rather than a body farm).

Yeah, I would guess that 30 000 gets you a personal doctor and a nurse or two, great nutrition 'meals' and muscle toning comparable to a gym workout, so it's not really applicable to prison-VR.

Muscle strength does degrade really fast, but somehow I find it hard to imagine anybody crying over the fact that released inmates can just barely manage a shuffle-walk after incarceration. And this might be accomplished with a short intensive treatment right before release.