116 lines
6.0 KiB
Markdown
116 lines
6.0 KiB
Markdown
# Parole
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*Release, driven by what the pawn has become.*
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> This page is the release **decision**. The warden work that acts on it — the "Ready for parole" alert
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> and the release that frees a parolee back into the colony — is [Rehabilitation](Rehabilitation.md).
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Parole is the end of the arc, and it is deliberately a *decision*, not a mechanic that rebuilds the
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game's release flow. It asks one question — **is this pawn ready?** — and answers it from two things
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already on the record: the reform the sentence earned (or failed to earn), and the grade the record
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warrants.
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> The *return* outcome — a grateful ally, a vengeful raider — is Prisoner Realism's Recidivism, a good
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> sim Corrections does not rebuild. Corrections' mirror is the parolee who **stays** and may reoffend,
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> carrying their record into the colony.
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---
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## The gate
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A prisoner can be paroled only when **all three** of these hold:
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| Condition | Threshold | Why |
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|---|---|---|
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| Not already pardoned | never released before | Release is one-way; you can't re-parole. |
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| Genuinely reformed | reform 0.30 or higher | Proof the sentence *healed* rather than hardened. Three corrective acts minimum. |
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| Low enough grade | grade Medium or below (risk under 0.8) | Reform of attitude is not enough — the *record* must have cooled to something you'd let out. |
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A pawn with **no record at all** is releasable trivially (there is nothing to hold them). Everyone else
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has to earn all three.
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The grade gate and the reform gate interact in a way worth internalizing. Because reform subtracts at
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most 0.4 from risk ([Classification](Classification.md)), a pawn whose reform-*less* risk is 1.2 or more
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can never reach Medium — so **no amount of reform will ever parole a prolific offender.** Parole is for
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pawns whose record stayed shallow enough that treatment can pull them back under the ceiling. Let a pawn
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rack up escapes and catches and you have quietly converted them into a lifer, whatever their attitude.
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---
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## Release
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Releasing a parolee marks a **pardon** on their record. Vanilla does the actual freeing; the pardon is
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Corrections' memory that this pawn was let out after genuine reform, so reintegration can grant a clean
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slate and the pawn won't be offered for parole twice. A modest faction-goodwill / relationship nudge for
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a well-handled release is the immediate payoff.
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---
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## The whole arc
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The pawn moves through every stage in turn, and each one writes the record the next one reads:
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| Stage | Where it lives | What moves | What's recorded |
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|---|---|---|---|
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| 1. Crime | [Deterrence](Deterrence.md) | Climate −0.08; the colony runs hot | a crime, and when it happened |
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| 2. Caught & held | [Classification](Classification.md) | A grade is assigned from the record | reads every counter |
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| 3. Discipline | [Discipline](Discipline-and-Reform.md) | Reform moves ±; climate +0.12 | reform |
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| 4. Reform | [Discipline](Discipline-and-Reform.md) → Core | Disposition cools as reform rises | reform (read by disposition) |
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| 5. Regrade | [Classification](Classification.md) | Reform subtracts risk; grade falls | reads reform |
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| 6. **Parole** | this page | Gate opens at reform 0.30 **and** grade Medium or below | reads reform and pardon; sets pardon |
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It is a loop, not a line: the crime that opens stage 1 also cools the colony's climate, which the *next*
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pawn's disposition reads — so one pawn's whole sentence is faintly present in every other pawn's odds.
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---
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## Worked example — a sentence that ends in release
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**Cass**, a Kind pickpocket whose gentle nature floors her nature term at 0. She arrives with one crime,
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caught once, no escapes, no contraband, no reform yet. Her risk is (1 × 0.20) + (1 × 0.15) = **0.35 →
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Medium.** She is already Medium-or-below, so the *grade* gate is met — but her reform is 0, so she is not
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yet releasable.
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You give her the corrective hand three times (structure, rewarded conduct) and fix her cell so she
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isn't stewing. Reform rises to 0.30, which subtracts 0.30 × 0.4 = 0.12 from her risk, dropping her to
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**0.23 → Minimum.** Now all three gates are met — reform at least 0.30, Minimum is below Medium, and
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she's never been pardoned — so **Cass is paroleable.** Pardon her and she walks.
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Contrast **Bram** from the Classification page, whose reform-less risk of 1.55 keeps him at Maximum even
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at full reform — the grade gate never opens for him, so he can never be paroled. Two prisoners, the same
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treatment, and the record decides which one you can ever let go.
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---
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## A note on record cleanup
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A pawn with a completely empty record — no crimes, no escapes, no contraband, no catches, no reform, no
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pardon — is forgotten on save/load (Core prunes blank and dead-pawn records). A *pardoned* pawn is
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therefore **not** empty, and their record persists: the pardon is remembered. This is why a released
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parolee who stays and reoffends still carries their history — Corrections does not forget that they were
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once let out.
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---
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## Ideology-flavoured thresholds
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Precepts layer on top of this baseline, not under it: an execution-favouring ideoligion paroles rarely,
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a lenient one readily. The gate above is the baseline those precepts modulate — the floor beneath the
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flavour, so the decision is coherent whether or not Ideology is installed.
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---
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## How to play with parole
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- **Parole is earned, not granted.** You cannot release your way out of a deep record. Decide early
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whether a pawn is a keep-or-release case and treat (gently) the ones you mean to free.
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- **Reform 0.30 is three gentle acts, minimum.** Nothing faster reaches it. Start early.
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- **Keep the record shallow if you want the option.** Every escape (+0.35) and catch (+0.15) you let
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accumulate pushes a pawn toward the unparoleable side of the 1.2 line.
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- **A parolee who stays is a Corrections case, not a farewell.** They carry their record; if conditions
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sour, their disposition (still reading their history) can put them back on it.
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---
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*Part of the **Institution** suite for RimWorld 1.6: Core · Contraband · Policing · Corrections · Gangs · Ward.*
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