# Discipline & Reform

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

> This page is the **numbers** — what a disciplinary act does to reform and order. What *drives* it in
> play (a warden's rehabilitation sessions, and neglect that hardens) is [Rehabilitation](Rehabilitation.md).

Punishment 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: any act of
   discipline adds **+0.12** to the colony's order. 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 belong to Corrections, so discipline is never inert. Prisoner Realism owns the passive
*toll* of isolation (a good sim of how solitary *feels*); Corrections 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

Every disciplinary act moves the prisoner's **reform** score, in one of two directions:

| The hand | Reform change | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| **Harsh** | **−0.15** | Beatings, deprivation, the hard hand. Hardens — "prisonization." |
| **Corrective** | **+0.10** | Correction, structure, rewarded good conduct. Rehabilitates. |

Either way, the act also adds **+0.12** to the colony's order — the colony sees order done, whoever it
was done to.

Reform lives on the shared record, clamped between −1 and +1:

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

Note the asymmetry: **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 feeds straight back into a pawn's **disposition** —
Core's underlying "would they act out?" multiplier — scaling their whole disposition up or down and
keeping it there. The size of that scaling is set entirely by reform:

| Reform | Disposition 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 |

Because reform is clamped between −1 and +1, the factor spans 0.5× to 1.5×. **This is the whole
trick.** Institutionalization and recidivism are not a parallel mechanic bolted on the side — they are
*one number the disposition already reads*. A hardened pawn is not flagged "recidivist"; they simply
carry a negative reform that makes every "would they?" roll for the rest of their life come up hot.
Discipline and Parole are what *move* reform; disposition only *reads* it — which is how
institutionalization emerges without a second system.

---

## Worked example — two sentences

Take a fresh prisoner with reform 0, badly kept: mood 0.30, held. Before any reform, their disposition
is already running hot — a bad mood (×1.6) and a held-and-unhappy cell (×1.4) combine, and with the
colony at baseline the pawn sits around **2.35× disposition**.

**The hard hand.** You beat them into line — three harsh punishments take reform to −0.45. At that
reform the disposition factor is 1.225, so 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 order 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 rises to +0.30, and the
recovered mood drops the "badly kept" and "held-and-unhappy" penalties entirely. The disposition factor
at +0.30 reform is 0.85, so their disposition is now roughly **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) at the price of the
  pawn's disposition *forever* (−0.15 reform → hotter disposition). 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 or higher; 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.

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*Part of the **Institution** suite for RimWorld 1.6: Core · Contraband · Policing · Corrections · Gangs · Ward.*