# Discipline & Reform

*Punishment as an action, with a self-complete payoff — and the seat of institutionalization.*

Punishment in Justice does two things at once, on two different axes:

1. **It deters the colony.** Order seen to be done raises the climate of order for everyone —
   `RecordPunishment`, `+0.12`. See [Deterrence](Deterrence.md).
2. **It reshapes the punished.** A harsh hand *prisonizes* — the pawn hardens, `reform` falls, their
   disposition climbs for good. A corrective hand *rehabilitates* — `reform` rises, their disposition
   cools for good.

Both effects are Justice's own, so discipline is never inert. Prisoner Realism owns the passive *toll*
of isolation (a good sim of how solitary *feels*); Justice owns the *order* it produces and the
persistent *shift* it leaves on the pawn. When both mods are present, PR's solitary deterioration
deepens the felt experience on top — it does not replace this.

---

## The two hands

```
Discipline.Punish(pawn, harsh):
    Justice.RecordPunishment(pawn.Map)                       // +0.12 colony climate (Deterrence)
    reform = Clamp(reform + (harsh ? -0.15 : +0.10), -1, +1) // the persistent shift
```

| Call | Reform delta | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| `Punish(pawn, harsh: true)` | **−0.15** | Beatings, deprivation, the hard hand. Hardens — "prisonization." |
| `Punish(pawn, harsh: false)` | **+0.10** | Correction, structure, rewarded good conduct. Rehabilitates. |

`reform` lives on the shared record, clamped to `[−1, +1]`:

| `reform` | Reading |
|---|---|
| `+1.0` | Fully rehabilitated |
| `0.0` | Untouched — as they came in |
| `−1.0` | Fully hardened, institutionalized |

Note the asymmetry the other way from Deterrence: **harsh (−0.15) moves faster than gentle (+0.10).**
It takes three corrective acts to build `+0.30` of reform; two harsh acts to tear down `−0.30`. Damage
is quicker than repair — as it should be.

---

## How reform becomes disposition

Reform is not a status effect or a mood buff. It is read straight back into `Propensity.Nurture` (in
Core), where it multiplies a pawn's whole disposition:

```
if reform != 0:
    Nurture *= Clamp(1 - reform * 0.5, 0.4, 2)
```

| `reform` | Nurture factor | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| −1.00 (hardened) | **1.500** | +50% more disposed — permanently |
| −0.30 | 1.150 | +15% |
| −0.15 (one harsh act) | 1.075 | +7.5% |
| 0.00 | 1.000 | untouched |
| +0.10 (one gentle act) | 0.950 | −5% |
| +0.30 (parole threshold) | 0.850 | −15% |
| +1.00 (rehabilitated) | **0.500** | −50% less disposed — permanently |

Given reform is clamped to `[−1, +1]`, the factor spans `0.5×` to `1.5×`; the `0.4`/`2` clamp is a
safety rail that reform alone never reaches. **This is the whole trick.** Institutionalization and
recidivism are not a parallel mechanic bolted on the side — they are *one number the propensity engine
already reads*. A hardened pawn is not flagged "recidivist"; they simply carry a `−reform` that makes
every "would they?" roll for the rest of their life come up hot. Discipline and Parole are what *move*
reform; Nurture only *reads* it — which is how institutionalization becomes Justice's without a second
system.

---

## Worked example — two sentences

Take a fresh prisoner, `reform = 0`, badly kept: mood `0.30`, held. From Core, before reform, their
Nurture is already `1 × 1.6 (mood) × 1.4 (held & unhappy) = 2.24`, and say the colony sits at baseline
so `DeterrenceFactor = 1.05`, giving Nurture `≈ 2.35`.

**The hard hand.** You beat them into line — three harsh punishments:

```
reform: 0 → -0.15 → -0.30 → -0.45
Nurture factor at reform -0.45 = 1 - (-0.45 * 0.5) = 1.225
```

Their disposition is now `2.35 × 1.225 ≈ 2.88` — **+22% hotter than when they arrived**, forever,
independent of mood. You have made them more criminal, not less. This is prisonization: the sentence
itself became the cause. (You did buy `+0.36` of colony climate along the way — order today, at the
cost of the pawn's tomorrow.)

**The corrective hand.** Instead you structure and reward — three gentle punishments *and* you fix
their conditions (recreation, decent cell) so mood recovers to `0.55`:

```
reform: 0 → +0.10 → +0.20 → +0.30
mood 0.55 → no mood multiplier, not held-&-unhappy → those factors drop out
Nurture factor at reform +0.30 = 1 - (0.30 * 0.5) = 0.85
```

Now Nurture is roughly `1 × 0.85 × 1.05 (deterrence) ≈ 0.89` — **below neutral.** The same pawn who
would have been `2.88` disposed is now `0.89`. And at `reform = 0.30` with a low enough grade they
have crossed the [Parole](Parole.md) threshold. Same institution, opposite outcomes — decided by which
hand you used.

---

## How to play with discipline

- **Harsh is a lever, not a punishment button.** It buys colony order *now* (`+0.12` climate) at the
  price of the pawn's disposition *forever* (`−0.15` reform → hotter Nurture). Use it when you need the
  deterrence and never intend to release the pawn — a Supermax lifer you are only ever going to hold.
- **Gentle is how anyone gets out.** Parole needs `reform ≥ 0.30`; only the corrective hand builds it.
  Three gentle acts is the floor.
- **Damage compounds; repair is slow.** `−0.15` vs `+0.10` means a pawn you brutalize early is
  expensive to bring back — and a hardened pawn commits more crime, which sinks the climate, which
  makes *everyone* worse. Don't harden pawns you might want later.
- **Conditions and discipline stack.** Reform shifts disposition permanently; mood, neglect and
  deterrence shift it live (see [Regime](Regime.md) and [Deterrence](Deterrence.md)). A reformed pawn
  in a well-run wing is calm on two axes at once.

---

## For modders

```csharp
Discipline.Punish(pawn, harsh: true);   // -0.15 reform, +0.12 climate
Discipline.Punish(pawn, harsh: false);  // +0.10 reform, +0.12 climate
```

`Punish` uses `GameComponent_CriminalRecords.For` (creates the record if absent) and clamps `reform`
to `[−1, +1]`. It always fires `RecordPunishment` on the pawn's map, so *any* act of discipline moves
the colony climate regardless of which hand you use — the colony sees order done, whoever it was done
to. The class lives in the `Contraband` namespace (shared since the extraction from Contraband).

---

*Part of the **Institution** suite for RimWorld 1.6: Core · Contraband · Justice · Gangs. Developed
with substantial assistance from Claude (Anthropic).*