# Parole

*Release, driven by what the pawn has become.*

Parole is the end of the arc, and it is deliberately a *decision*, not a mechanic that rebuilds the
game's release flow. It asks one question — **is this pawn ready?** — and answers it from two things
already on the record: the reform the sentence earned (or failed to earn), and the grade the record
warrants. Both are self-complete reads; nothing here re-simulates a pawn's future.

> The *return* outcome — a grateful ally, a vengeful raider — is Prisoner Realism's Recidivism, a good
> sim Justice does not rebuild. Justice's mirror is the parolee who **stays** and may reoffend,
> carrying their record into the colony (a Justice follow-up).

---

## The gate

```
CanRelease(pawn):
    rec = record for pawn (peek, no create)
    if rec == null:      return true    // nothing on record to hold them
    if rec.pardoned:     return false   // already released
    return rec.reform >= 0.30
           && Classification.Grade(pawn) <= SecurityGrade.Medium
```

Three conditions, all of which must hold:

| Condition | Threshold | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Not already pardoned | `pardoned == false` | Release is a one-way flag; you can't re-parole. |
| Genuinely reformed | `reform ≥ 0.30` | Proof the sentence *healed* rather than hardened. Three corrective acts minimum. |
| Low enough grade | `Grade ≤ Medium` (risk `< 0.8`) | Reform of attitude is not enough — the *record* must have cooled to something you'd let out. |

A pawn with **no record at all** is releasable trivially (there is nothing to hold them). Everyone
else has to earn all three.

The grade gate and the reform gate interact in a way worth internalizing. Because reform subtracts at
most `0.4` from risk ([Classification](Classification.md)), a pawn whose reform-*less* risk is `≥ 1.2`
can never reach Medium — so **no amount of reform will ever parole a prolific offender.** Parole is for
pawns whose record stayed shallow enough that treatment can pull them back under the ceiling. Let a
pawn rack up escapes and catches and you have quietly converted them into a lifer, whatever their
attitude.

---

## Release

```
Release(pawn):
    record.pardoned = true
```

`Release` sets one flag: `pardoned`. Vanilla does the actual freeing; the flag is Justice's memory
that this pawn was let out after genuine reform, so reintegration can grant a clean slate and
`CanRelease` won't offer them twice. A modest faction-goodwill / relationship nudge for a well-handled
release is the immediate payoff, wired when the release job lands.

---

## The whole arc

The pawn moves through every Justice module in turn, and each one writes the record the next one reads:

| Stage | Module | What moves | Record touched |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Crime | [Deterrence](Deterrence.md) | Climate `−0.08`; the colony runs hot | `crimesCommitted++`, `lastCrimeTick` |
| 2. Caught & held | [Classification](Classification.md) | A grade is assigned from the record | reads all counters |
| 3. Discipline | [Discipline](Discipline-and-Reform.md) | `reform` moves ±; climate `+0.12` | `reform` |
| 4. Reform | [Discipline](Discipline-and-Reform.md) → Core | Disposition cools as reform rises | `reform` (read by Nurture) |
| 5. Regrade | [Classification](Classification.md) | Reform subtracts risk; grade falls | reads `reform` |
| 6. **Parole** | this page | Gate opens when reform ≥ 0.30 **and** grade ≤ Medium | reads `reform`, `pardoned`; sets `pardoned` |

It is a loop, not a line: the crime that opens stage 1 also cools the colony's climate, which the *next*
pawn's disposition reads — so one pawn's whole sentence is faintly present in every other pawn's odds.

---

## Worked example — a sentence that ends in release

**Cass**, a Kind pickpocket. Nature `= clamp01(0.05 − 0.30) = 0`. She arrives with one crime, caught
once, no escapes, no contraband, `reform = 0`.

```
Grade at intake:
risk = 0 + 0 + (1*0.20) + (1*0.15) + 0 - 0 = 0.35  →  MEDIUM
CanRelease? reform 0 < 0.30  →  NO
```

She is already Medium-or-below, so the *grade* gate is met — but her `reform` is `0`. You give her the
corrective hand three times (structure, rewarded conduct), and fix her cell so she isn't stewing:

```
reform: 0 → +0.10 → +0.20 → +0.30
Grade now: risk = 0.35 - (0.30 * 0.4) = 0.23  →  MINIMUM
CanRelease? reform 0.30 ≥ 0.30  AND  Minimum ≤ Medium  AND  not pardoned  →  YES
```

`Release(Cass)` sets `pardoned = true`. She walks. Contrast **Bram** from the Classification page,
whose reform-less risk of `1.55` keeps him at Maximum even at `reform = 1.0` — `CanRelease` returns
`false` for Bram forever, because the grade gate never opens. Two prisoners, the same treatment, and
the record decides which one you can ever let go.

---

## A note on record cleanup

A pawn whose record is `IsBlank` — no crimes, no escapes, no contraband, no catches, `reform == 0`,
not pardoned — is dropped on save/load (Core prunes blank and dead-pawn records). A *pardoned* pawn is
therefore **not** blank and their record persists: the pardon is remembered. This is why a released
parolee who stays and reoffends still carries their history — Justice does not forget that they were
once let out.

---

## Ideology-flavoured thresholds

Precepts layer on top of this baseline, not under it: an execution-favouring ideoligion paroles
rarely, a lenient one readily. `CanRelease` is the substrate-native baseline those precepts modulate —
the floor beneath the flavour, so the decision is coherent whether or not Ideology is installed.

---

## How to play with parole

- **Parole is earned, not granted.** You cannot release your way out of a deep record. Decide early
  whether a pawn is a keep-or-release case and treat (gently) the ones you mean to free.
- **`reform ≥ 0.30` is three gentle acts, minimum.** Nothing faster reaches it. Start early.
- **Keep the record shallow if you want the option.** Every escape (`+0.35`) and catch (`+0.15`) you
  let accumulate pushes a pawn toward the unparoleable side of the `1.2` line.
- **A parolee who stays is a Justice case, not a farewell.** They carry their record; if conditions
  sour, their disposition (still reading their history) can put them back on it.

---

## For modders

```csharp
if (Parole.CanRelease(pawn))   // pure read: reform, grade, pardon
    Parole.Release(pawn);      // sets pardoned = true
```

`CanRelease` peeks (never creates a record) and treats a missing record as releasable. `Release` uses
`For` (creates if absent) and is idempotent — a second call is a no-op once `pardoned` is set. Both
live in the `Contraband` namespace (shared since Justice's extraction from Contraband).

---

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