Superjail FAQ
Feb. 4th, 2012 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capeandcowlcop posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
capeandcowlpolice1. Help! I've been arrested! Where are you taking me?!
There are currently three different options for incarceration in the City, only two of which are likely to pertain to you and your playable character. They are as follows:
- The 'old' jail, which some of you may remember as being blown up on multiple occasions in the pre-superjail days. The old jail has been stripped of all force fields and related gadgets, and now functions as a plain old bars-and-concrete prison facility for unpowered criminals. Basically your muggers, drunks, murderers and scumbags that can't break out with a super-powered sneeze.
- The asylum, NOHoPE, for those characters who have some sort of documented mental illness. Remember that security system from the old jail? Well, it's been refitted and re-installed in a secure wing here for those patients who are both insane and dangerously powered. But it's still nowhere near as secure as the superjail, something to keep in mind if you're planning to make an escape.
- The Superjail, designed by Sentinel Prime is a high-tech and nigh-impenetrable fortress of criminal justice. It is the default housing for imPort criminals, so if your character has been arrested and isn't certifiably crazy, they're going to end up here.
2. How soon after arrest do I go to the Superjail and how does this fit in with the rest of the City's legal process?
There is currently no holding facility at the police station that's capable of containing Imports, so your character goes to superjail immediately after arrest and stays there until arraignment occurs and bail is set. This happens within two days of the arrest. Then, if your character is bailed out, he or she or other is free to go! But if you can't find anyone to post your character's bail, or if bail is unrealistic because your character has committed a serious crime (such as murder), you're stuck in the Superjail until trial. Which can be awhile. And then if you're convicted at that trial, you're obviously stuck there for your sentence.
Characters eligible for the asylum are transferred there as soon as it can be proven that they are mentally ill and it is therefore more appropriate for the to get psychiatric treatment than be incarcerated. This means that your character pleads not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, undergoes a psychiatric evaluation, and has their sanity or lack thereof confirmed.
3. So where's my lawyer??
You're on your own for that one, dude. The time to get a lawyer is immediately after you're arrested and before arraignment, so your lawyer can negotiate bail. Most of you won't be working with one of the PC lawyers in the City, as they're few and far between.
PLEASE feel free to arrange for an NPC lawyer, whether your character has the means to hire one or is using a public defender.
And we probably don't need to say this, but for the sake of thoroughness...please keep realism in mind when determining how effective your character's lawyer will be. If your character is a repeat offender, is likely to skip town, or is being charged with a serious crime, they'll probably be assigned really high bail or no bail at all, and won't be out walking the street before trial. If your crime got recorded on the Network, you're probably getting convicted. That sort of thing.
4. What's it like in the superjail?
Picture OZ meets your local Apple store. It looks like you'd expect a prison to look, but with a high-tech, institutional, sterile feel to it. The color scheme is mostly white and gray. Everything is extremely clean. The cells have all the normal amenities: cot, washstand, toilet, that sort of thing. You also get your own shower, because metahuman criminals + communal showering = BAD IDEA. Under normal circumstances, you will not have a cellmate. There is a dining hall, meals usually happen in there unless you're the type to create a disturbance. Then you eat in your cell. In place of the usual yard, there is an indoor gymnasium to address the risk of people just flying out, and there is a prison library. It currently doesn't have much of a selection.
There are two rooms for visitation. Visitation room 1 is the screened-off, talk through the phone, bare boobs against the glass kind of visitation. Visitation room 2 is smaller and allows for one-on-one face-to-face contact.
At present, there isn't any kind of social work-y or religious outreach into the superjail. But that's subject to immediate change if some charitable character tries to make it so!
There is a small and rarely used infirmary on-site, but it isn't equipped to deal with major injuries. Any severely injured prisoner will either be transported to the clinic, or a healer from there will be asked to come to the superjail to address the situation.
5. Can my character still use a communicator? Are there any restrictions?
On arrival, when your character is processed, searched, and uniformed, their communicator will be temporarily confiscated and the private/filtering functions disabled by one of the police tech-types. It is then returned and your character can use it while in jail. There is no official policy on disabling other functions, but it will be considered if an inmate is able to misuse their powers via one of the communicator functions. So if you have a character whose abilities can affect others via, say, a voice or video post, I suggest making a note of how you'd like it handled when you submit to the Superjail residence post.
5. What are the security measures like?
The secure wing of the asylum is equipped with modular force field generators to cover the rooms, and video surveillance. Specifics on security measures at the superjail are still under construction. Here's what we know so far:
- The building itself is really solidly constructed. No busting through walls.
- Each cell is equipped with its own force field, as are the entrance/exit points of the common areas and visitation rooms. These are stronger than the modular ones, and the superjail's electrical grid can route power proportionally to any field to match the amount of resistance being exerted against it.
- The automated security system includes video surveillance, motion detection and heat sensors. It's governed by a computer that can detect any suspicious change in the sensor readings or any fault in the security system and immediately alert the Warden's office and/or the guards' station.
6. Does the superjail have any weaknesses?
Currently, teleportation! This is subject to change in the future.
7. Who are the guards?
NPCs mostly, with a few exceptions. You can check the police roster for any current Superjail employees.
8. I want my character to visit an inmate! What do I need to do?
Leave a note on the Superjail residence post. IC, the Warden will most likely do a check of your activities on the Network to see if you're someone he or she needs to keep an eye on.
On arriving at the superjail, your character will have to go through security - think those newfangled body scan devices they're putting in airports, plus an x-ray for anything they're bringing with them. There may or may not also be magical wards to go through, if you have something that would be magically-sensed, please note that on the visitation request.
9. Can I bring food or other items to my incarcerated friend?
Yes, within reason. Food and personal items are okay, though they'll have to pass security. Anything that could be a safety hazard is obviously a no-go, and there's no point in bringing clothes because inmates wear uniforms.
10. Now for the really important question: My character's in jail. How do I get them OUT?
Please, please, PLEASE keep in mind that the entire purpose of the superjail is to prevent escapes. Because of this, jailbreaks will be few and far between. But don't worry, there are tons of ways you can use the legal system to your advantage to get your pup out of the pokey. Here are a few suggestions:
- Get bailed out, skip town and go on the lam.
- Didn't get your rights read? Arresting officer beat the crap out of you? Got illegally interrogated by a telepath? Make trouble for the copcast and get released on a technicality.
- Take a plea bargain! Get yourself released on parole or probation, or to someone else's supervision as has been arranged in the past. Or, similarly, first-time or lesser offenders can make a deal for community service or volunteer service to the police.
- Get a REALLY good lawyer, go to trial and get acquitted.
- If you really must make a break for it, convince people that your character is nuts and get into the asylum. It's much easier to break out of, it happens ALL THE TIME.
If you have a question that hasn't been answered here, please ask it below. They will be screened, but if it is something that we feel supplements this FAQ we will unscreen it with your permission, along with our answer.
There are currently three different options for incarceration in the City, only two of which are likely to pertain to you and your playable character. They are as follows:
- The 'old' jail, which some of you may remember as being blown up on multiple occasions in the pre-superjail days. The old jail has been stripped of all force fields and related gadgets, and now functions as a plain old bars-and-concrete prison facility for unpowered criminals. Basically your muggers, drunks, murderers and scumbags that can't break out with a super-powered sneeze.
- The asylum, NOHoPE, for those characters who have some sort of documented mental illness. Remember that security system from the old jail? Well, it's been refitted and re-installed in a secure wing here for those patients who are both insane and dangerously powered. But it's still nowhere near as secure as the superjail, something to keep in mind if you're planning to make an escape.
- The Superjail, designed by Sentinel Prime is a high-tech and nigh-impenetrable fortress of criminal justice. It is the default housing for imPort criminals, so if your character has been arrested and isn't certifiably crazy, they're going to end up here.
2. How soon after arrest do I go to the Superjail and how does this fit in with the rest of the City's legal process?
There is currently no holding facility at the police station that's capable of containing Imports, so your character goes to superjail immediately after arrest and stays there until arraignment occurs and bail is set. This happens within two days of the arrest. Then, if your character is bailed out, he or she or other is free to go! But if you can't find anyone to post your character's bail, or if bail is unrealistic because your character has committed a serious crime (such as murder), you're stuck in the Superjail until trial. Which can be awhile. And then if you're convicted at that trial, you're obviously stuck there for your sentence.
Characters eligible for the asylum are transferred there as soon as it can be proven that they are mentally ill and it is therefore more appropriate for the to get psychiatric treatment than be incarcerated. This means that your character pleads not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, undergoes a psychiatric evaluation, and has their sanity or lack thereof confirmed.
3. So where's my lawyer??
You're on your own for that one, dude. The time to get a lawyer is immediately after you're arrested and before arraignment, so your lawyer can negotiate bail. Most of you won't be working with one of the PC lawyers in the City, as they're few and far between.
PLEASE feel free to arrange for an NPC lawyer, whether your character has the means to hire one or is using a public defender.
And we probably don't need to say this, but for the sake of thoroughness...please keep realism in mind when determining how effective your character's lawyer will be. If your character is a repeat offender, is likely to skip town, or is being charged with a serious crime, they'll probably be assigned really high bail or no bail at all, and won't be out walking the street before trial. If your crime got recorded on the Network, you're probably getting convicted. That sort of thing.
4. What's it like in the superjail?
Picture OZ meets your local Apple store. It looks like you'd expect a prison to look, but with a high-tech, institutional, sterile feel to it. The color scheme is mostly white and gray. Everything is extremely clean. The cells have all the normal amenities: cot, washstand, toilet, that sort of thing. You also get your own shower, because metahuman criminals + communal showering = BAD IDEA. Under normal circumstances, you will not have a cellmate. There is a dining hall, meals usually happen in there unless you're the type to create a disturbance. Then you eat in your cell. In place of the usual yard, there is an indoor gymnasium to address the risk of people just flying out, and there is a prison library. It currently doesn't have much of a selection.
There are two rooms for visitation. Visitation room 1 is the screened-off, talk through the phone, bare boobs against the glass kind of visitation. Visitation room 2 is smaller and allows for one-on-one face-to-face contact.
At present, there isn't any kind of social work-y or religious outreach into the superjail. But that's subject to immediate change if some charitable character tries to make it so!
There is a small and rarely used infirmary on-site, but it isn't equipped to deal with major injuries. Any severely injured prisoner will either be transported to the clinic, or a healer from there will be asked to come to the superjail to address the situation.
5. Can my character still use a communicator? Are there any restrictions?
On arrival, when your character is processed, searched, and uniformed, their communicator will be temporarily confiscated and the private/filtering functions disabled by one of the police tech-types. It is then returned and your character can use it while in jail. There is no official policy on disabling other functions, but it will be considered if an inmate is able to misuse their powers via one of the communicator functions. So if you have a character whose abilities can affect others via, say, a voice or video post, I suggest making a note of how you'd like it handled when you submit to the Superjail residence post.
5. What are the security measures like?
The secure wing of the asylum is equipped with modular force field generators to cover the rooms, and video surveillance. Specifics on security measures at the superjail are still under construction. Here's what we know so far:
- The building itself is really solidly constructed. No busting through walls.
- Each cell is equipped with its own force field, as are the entrance/exit points of the common areas and visitation rooms. These are stronger than the modular ones, and the superjail's electrical grid can route power proportionally to any field to match the amount of resistance being exerted against it.
- The automated security system includes video surveillance, motion detection and heat sensors. It's governed by a computer that can detect any suspicious change in the sensor readings or any fault in the security system and immediately alert the Warden's office and/or the guards' station.
6. Does the superjail have any weaknesses?
Currently, teleportation! This is subject to change in the future.
7. Who are the guards?
NPCs mostly, with a few exceptions. You can check the police roster for any current Superjail employees.
8. I want my character to visit an inmate! What do I need to do?
Leave a note on the Superjail residence post. IC, the Warden will most likely do a check of your activities on the Network to see if you're someone he or she needs to keep an eye on.
On arriving at the superjail, your character will have to go through security - think those newfangled body scan devices they're putting in airports, plus an x-ray for anything they're bringing with them. There may or may not also be magical wards to go through, if you have something that would be magically-sensed, please note that on the visitation request.
9. Can I bring food or other items to my incarcerated friend?
Yes, within reason. Food and personal items are okay, though they'll have to pass security. Anything that could be a safety hazard is obviously a no-go, and there's no point in bringing clothes because inmates wear uniforms.
10. Now for the really important question: My character's in jail. How do I get them OUT?
Please, please, PLEASE keep in mind that the entire purpose of the superjail is to prevent escapes. Because of this, jailbreaks will be few and far between. But don't worry, there are tons of ways you can use the legal system to your advantage to get your pup out of the pokey. Here are a few suggestions:
- Get bailed out, skip town and go on the lam.
- Didn't get your rights read? Arresting officer beat the crap out of you? Got illegally interrogated by a telepath? Make trouble for the copcast and get released on a technicality.
- Take a plea bargain! Get yourself released on parole or probation, or to someone else's supervision as has been arranged in the past. Or, similarly, first-time or lesser offenders can make a deal for community service or volunteer service to the police.
- Get a REALLY good lawyer, go to trial and get acquitted.
- If you really must make a break for it, convince people that your character is nuts and get into the asylum. It's much easier to break out of, it happens ALL THE TIME.
If you have a question that hasn't been answered here, please ask it below. They will be screened, but if it is something that we feel supplements this FAQ we will unscreen it with your permission, along with our answer.
