Classification

The intelligence layer over the wings you already build by hand.

You already build a minimum wing and a max block. You already put the psychopath behind steel and the teenage pickpocket behind a wooden door. Classification does not replace those walls, cells and locks — it answers the question vanilla never does: who belongs where. It reads the one shared CriminalRecord every module writes to and turns it into a single verdict, so the crime system, the search, the escape and the classifier all agree on how dangerous a pawn is, because they read the same number.

Grade drives everything downstream: search frequency, privileges, escape risk, and — critically — parole eligibility (Parole gates on grade).

The isolation toll of a max/solitary placement is Prisoner Realism's (good) sim. Justice only decides the placement.

The tiers

SecurityGrade is four bands, low to high — the tiers players already build, named:

Grade	Risk score	Reading
Minimum	`< 0.35`	Barely a disposition, clean record. Open dorm, light watch.
Medium	`0.35 – 0.79`	A real record or a real nature. Proper cell, routine search. The parole ceiling.
Maximum	`0.80 – 1.49`	Repeat offender or proven flight risk. Steel, solitary door, frequent search.
Supermax	`≥ 1.5`	The headline cases. Escapes plus crimes plus a dark nature. Never let them near a wall.

Note the ceiling at Medium: Parole will only consider a pawn graded Medium or below. Grade is therefore not just a placement hint — it is the gate a pawn has to fall back through before they can be released.

The risk score

Risk is a 0..~3 number: baseline disposition plus everything on the record, minus reform earned.

risk = Nature(pawn) * 0.5              // who they are, before they have done anything
     + escapeAttempts * 0.35          // a proven flight risk is the headline
     + crimesCommitted * 0.20
     + timesCaught     * 0.15
     + contrabandMade  * 0.10
     - max(0, reform)  * 0.4          // genuine reform earns a downgrade
risk = max(0, risk)                   // never negative

Term	Weight	Why this weight
`Nature` (0..1)	`× 0.5`	Disposition alone can carry a pawn to Medium (Nature 0.7+), but never past it on its own. Character is a suspicion, not a conviction.
`escapeAttempts`	`× 0.35`	The heaviest per-event term. A pawn who runs is the one who ends up armed in your base. One attempt is worth nearly two crimes.
`crimesCommitted`	`× 0.20`	The staple. Steady, cumulative.
`timesCaught`	`× 0.15`	Caught contraband is worse than merely suspected.
`contrabandMade`	`× 0.10`	The lightest term — making a shiv is common; escaping with one is not.
`reform` (if > 0)	`− 0.4`	The only term that can lower the grade. At most −0.4 (reform capped at 1.0).

Two facts fall out of the numbers, and both matter for how you play:

timesSearched is not in the formula. Searching a pawn does not make them more dangerous — only finding something (timesCaught) does. Search freely; it costs the prisoner no grade.
Reform can shift at most 0.4 of risk. At reform = 1.0, the downgrade is −0.4. So a pawn whose record without reform already totals ≥ 1.2 can never fall to Medium (< 0.8) no matter how thoroughly they reform — and therefore can never be paroled. A prolific offender is a life sentence. You will hold them, work them, or execute them; you will not release them. This is a deliberate property of the weights, not an accident.

Worked example — grading a record

Bram, an Abrasive raider. Nature = 0.05 + 0.15 = 0.20. He has three crimes, one escape attempt, was caught twice, made two shivs, and has not been reformed (reform = 0).

risk = 0.20 * 0.5   = 0.100   (nature)
     + 1    * 0.35  = 0.350   (escape — the headline)
     + 3    * 0.20  = 0.600   (crimes)
     + 2    * 0.15  = 0.300   (caught)
     + 2    * 0.10  = 0.200   (contraband)
     - 0    * 0.4   = 0.000   (no reform)
                    ─────────
              total = 1.550   →  ≥ 1.5  →  SUPERMAX

Now treat him. Say patient handling and good conduct lift him to reform = 0.40:

risk = 1.550 - (0.40 * 0.4) = 1.550 - 0.160 = 1.390   →  MAXIMUM

He drops a band. But notice: his reform-less risk is 1.55, well above 1.2. Even at perfect reform = 1.0 he lands at 1.55 − 0.40 = 1.15 — still Maximum. Bram is beyond parole for the rest of his life. His record decided that, not his disposition.

Contrast Cass, a Kind pickpocket. Nature = clamp01(0.05 − 0.30) = 0. One crime, caught once, no escape, no contraband, reform = 0.

risk = 0 + 0 + (1*0.20) + (1*0.15) + 0 - 0 = 0.350   →  MEDIUM  (exactly on the line)

Give Cass the standard treatment to reform = 0.30:

risk = 0.350 - (0.30 * 0.4) = 0.350 - 0.120 = 0.230   →  MINIMUM

Cass is now Minimum, and — being Medium-or-below with reform ≥ 0.30 — paroleable. Same institution, two futures, and the record told you which was which before you had to guess.

How to play with grades

Segregate by grade, not by vibe. Sort your cells to the four bands and put a pawn where their score, not your hunch, says. The whole suite reads the record; you can too.
Escapes are the alarm. One escape attempt (+0.35) will jump a middling pawn a band. If a pawn crosses into Maximum after a break attempt, believe it — treat them as the flight risk the number says they are.
A clean nature is not a clean record. A Kind pawn who has escaped twice still grades Maximum; disposition is only half the score.
Watch the parole ceiling. If you intend to release someone, keep their reform-less risk under 1.2 — mostly that means limiting how deep their record gets before you start treating them. A pawn you let rack up escapes and catches has sentenced themselves.
Reform is the only lever that lowers a grade. See Discipline & Reform for how to move it, and Parole for where the grade gate lands.

For modders

SecurityGrade grade = Classification.Grade(pawn);   // the verdict
float score         = Classification.Risk(pawn);    // the raw 0..~3 number

Both are pure reads — Risk uses GameComponent_CriminalRecords.PeekFor and never creates a record. SecurityGrade is an ordered enum (Minimum < Medium < Maximum < Supermax), so grade <= Medium comparisons work as written. The type lives in the Contraband namespace (Justice was extracted from Institution: Contraband and kept the shared namespace).

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

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