Prisons and Loony Bins

[The Arc]

Prisons and Psych Wards are a common theme in the comics. In the Uberworld Universe this is no different. Some of the ones in the Uberworld universe are as follows.

 

1. Grand Gulag-The Grand Gulag is an underground Russian super-prison way out in Siberia surrounded by thousands of miles of frozen wilderness.

 

2. The Langdon Maximum Security Prison-This prison is the super-max prison for super-powered criminals in the United States and is located Maine.

 

3. Stonegate Prison-This prison is located in Surrery, England is for criminals from the British Commonwealth and a few from the EU.

 

4. Camp Zero-Technically not a prison per se. Camp Zero is in an unknown location in China. Camp Zero is more of a reeducation center for super-powered beings unwilling to follow party precepts.

 

5. The Thorp Institute for the Criminally Insane-Located off the coast of Virginia in America, the Institute caters to super-powered criminals that the courts have deemed to be psychotic and haven't been sent to the Langdon Maximum Security Prison in Maine. 

 

 

That's about it for the Uberworld Universe so far. So in your campaigns what measures have the Normals taken to confront the menace of super powered criminals 

[Tom Cowan]

Mount Rainier Meta Human Juvenile Detention Center, a lockup for kids with dangerous powers that are in the court system.  A number of the kids there are a danger to self and/or others from out of control powers.  Not a lot of kids are in the center, takes a lot to get sent there... The staff works hard to get the kids powers under the kids control and get them any mental help needed so they can live a 'normal' life. 

[steriaca]

In Japan there are a series of small, out of the way and in dangerous location prisons code named Jikuoh (after the buddhist version of Hell). One is under water, another inside a semi-active volcano, a third is in geo-stationary orbit above the Sea of Japan. It is designed to be comfortable inside, but painful or even deadly to break out of.

[Lord Liaden]

The current official Champions Universe features a few other super-prisons besides Stronghold in the New Mexico desert. They're described on pp. 58-60 of the Stronghold sourcebook.

 

Canada maintains Stronghold North (christened with US permission) in northern Ontario near the Winisk River. That makes it relatively isolated but fairly close by air from anywhere in eastern Canada. It's similar in design and technology to Stronghold, but much smaller due to less supercrime in Canada.

 

UNTIL's International Superhuman Correctional Facility is commonly nicknamed, "the Guardhouse." It's located on a small island in the North Atlantic between Scotland and Iceland, hundreds of miles from other land. It's otherwise also similar to Stronghold.

 

Europe is also the site of the European Union's own super-prison, the Pan-European Superhuman Correctional Institute (PESCHI), on the Swedish coast of the Gulf of Bothnia. It places a greater emphasis on programs to rehabilitate criminals than Stronghold does. PESCHI lacks any "hot sleep" facilities for extremely dangerous inmates, since the EU considers that a violation of human rights.

 

China houses its super-criminals in the Zamtang Detention Center, near the city of the same name in Sichuan province. China is very secretive about the facility, but Western experts have information suggesting it relies as much on medication to keep prisoners docile, as on superpower-negating technology. They also believe the Chinese use less dangerous super prisoners as slave labor on public works.

 

Russian supervillains are confined in Mesto Zaklyucheniya ("Detention Facility"), a former Soviet gulag in Siberia. While some power-negation tech is supposedly used, from all reports most of the time the prison staff rely on cruder, more brutal methods to keep the inmates in line, including drugs and powerful electric shock weapons.

[The Arc]

I missed another prison in the Uberworld Universe...

 

6. The Winter Palace, which is located in Riga, Latvia. It is for lower powered European meta-humans and is ran by a retired group of super-heroes known as the Knights of Winter.

[DShomshak]

My former Champions setting had the Lab Cage, a spare nuclear war command bunker converted to a super-prison. The nickname came from the side-mission of studying the inmates' super-powers. It was also under the jurisdiction of the US Gov.t super-agency, which in turn was part of the Department of Energy, so it was outside of normal Bureau of Prisons oversight.

 

I didn't give the Lab Cage (or my world) generalized "power nullifier" technology. People had to kludge escape-resistant cells individually, which led to some cells being -- not to put too fine a point on it -- blatantly illegal torture. For instance, the villain Iceberg was kept in a cell hot enough to deactivate his ice-projection powers... which was about one degree Centigrade from the temperature that triggered his full Susceptibility, and was still somewhat harmful. Effectively, he was kept continually in a state of mild heatstroke, just short of what would cause him to lose consciousness..

 

Other cells were less obviously drastic, such as teleporters kept in cells with no external view and only intermittently accessible, so the inmate would not know which direction to teleport or how far in order to avoid teleporting into a solid object. But it still meant solitary confinement 24/7 except for video chat.

 

My new setting, the Millennium Universe, also lacks general power nullifiers, and the PCs have been involved in amelioriating the living conditions of convicted supervillains.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Lord Liaden]

To me it was very interesting to compare the 4E version of Stronghold (presented in Classic Enemies, essentially updating and refining the super-prison from the early module, Escape from Stronghold), with the depiction of Stronghold for 5E in the Stronghold source book. The earlier incarnation of the prison was similar to what Dean describes above, with individual cells tailored to contain specific power types, as well as the "Hot Sleep" option for villains too powerful to imprison while conscious. As Dean points out, that requires prisoners to essentially be kept perpetually in solitary confinement, which raises ethical issues. The "power negator" approach used in 5E Stronghold bypasses those issues, since prisoners can socialize and have access to the outdoor environment while their super powers are negated. It also opens up the range of story possibilities within the prison typical of other prison communities: fights between inmates, gangs formed for protection, smuggling, positive or negative relations with specific guards, riots, etc.

[Balabanto]

My world has multiple superprisons

 

The Butte (West Coast, Arizona) : This rocky crag is currently undergoing renovations, as Dr. Brutallo chose to escape by sinking the whole prison and freeing everyone else, too. (Mr. Wumbles chose to stay in jail. This scared the player characters more than anything else I've ever done.)

 

The Fortress: This prison is located in Southern Maryland, where supercriminals are specifically imprisoned for actions against the US Government. 

 

The Gulag: This prison is located in Siberia, in the inhospitable wilderness. The Gulag is funded by foreign countries, who the Russians charge to keep their supercriminals in prison. If the payments aren't kept up, the Russians release them. Needless to say, human rights aren't a priority in the Gulag. 

 

The Castle: Located in Switzerland, this superprison is built on the edge of the north face of the Eiger. The European Union collectively oversees it's prisoners. 

 

The location of the Chinese superprison is a carefully guarded secret. 

 

The location of Biafra's superprison is also unknown.

 

The Elizabeth J. Wentworth Asylum for the Criminally Insane: Located in upstate New York, this asylum restrains insane people who have taken on super-identities but have few superpowers of their own. 

 

The Susan Helmsley Asylum for the Criminally Insane: Located 20 minutes outside of Denver, Colorado, this facility contains a small number of advanced cells designed to contain insane people with superpowers. 

[Fry Daddy]

I have the Lovecraft Asylum for the Criminally Insane. I haven't fleshed it out much as yet, but it will be located in Massachusetts. Probably near Boston...or maybe Salem...

[Lord Liaden]

Hey, Fry Daddy! Haven't seen you around much for quite a while. Good to know you're still kicking.

 

Figures a thread titled, "Prisons and Loony Bins" would draw your attention.

[BoloOfEarth]

In the US I have Stronghold West, which is the one from the 5E Stronghold book, and Stronghold East, which replaced the Riker's Island prison in NYC and is based on the Gramercy Island prison from Heroes Unlimited / Palladium Books.

 

The "power negator" approach used in 5E Stronghold bypasses those issues, since prisoners can socialize and have access to the outdoor environment while their super powers are negated. It also opens up the range of story possibilities within the prison typical of other prison communities: fights between inmates, gangs formed for protection, smuggling, positive or negative relations with specific guards, riots, etc.

 

The problem I have with the "power negator" approach is that, if it affects *all* powers (including technological ones), then how do the guards have weapons that work?  Or prison robots that aren't immediately shut down?  (Are there any robots in 5E Stronghold? I don't recall.  But there are definitely weapons that aren't negated.)  Perhaps these points are addressed directly and I just missed it, but it just seemed hand-waved away to me.

 

In my game, I decided that there is a certain very specific magnetic field that blocks the negator field, and the guards wear special bracelets (or robots have built-in field generators) generating that magnetic field.  And a visiting hero may be temporarily given such a bracelet so he/she still has powers while within the super-prison.  Of course, when this was done in-game the PC team gadgeteer immediately hacked her bracelet to learn how to duplicate the effect, so the PC team can (when necessary) operate at Stronghold with impunity whenever they wish.  It became necessary when the Corrupted found a way to take over the warden and were trying to break out of Stronghold, and the PC heroes stopped them.

 

I don't think any of my players frequent these boards, but just in case I'll put a major upcoming plot point under spoiler.

 

 

A few months after that, a villain team (Secession Squad) disrupted the vice-presidential debates, and when the PC hero team arrived, the Squad's mentalist read the PC gadgeteer's mind, specifically about what preparations / gadgets she made as they went to deal with the Corrupted.  (The players learned this but didn't pursue it at all.)  Most of Secession Squad's members were captured by the heroes and, of course, sent off to Stronghold, though the mentalist weaseled her way out of getting convicted, and the Squad's gadgeteer escaped as well.

 

The players thought it odd that the Squad pulled what they did so publicly, practically guaranteeing their own capture.  It never occurred to them that the Squad *wanted* to go to Stronghold -- to recruit new allies, or at least villains who would owe them big-time.  Meanwhile, those outside the prison would produce iPod Nanos modified to generate the right magnetic field if the right songs are selected in a specific order.  Those seemingly innocuous items are now being smuggled into Stronghold and distributed to the Squad's new friends in preparation for an upcoming mass jailbreak.

 

[Lord Liaden]

The problem I have with the "power negator" approach is that, if it affects *all* powers (including technological ones), then how do the guards have weapons that work?  Or prison robots that aren't immediately shut down?  (Are there any robots in 5E Stronghold? I don't recall.  But there are definitely weapons that aren't negated.)  Perhaps these points are addressed directly and I just missed it, but it just seemed hand-waved away to me.

 

 

Yes, there are two types of robots in Stronghold, similar to the old "Type I" and "Type lII" robots from the original version of the prison.

 

I haven't found anything in the 5E Stronghold book which specifically states a reason for the guards' equipment and the robots to be exempt from the power-negation effect; but if I were gunning for a No-Prize on the subject, I'd point to the following passage from p. 55: "First, it [the power negator] affects superhumans neurologically, preventing them from "accessing" or "triggering" their powers even though they know they have them. Second, it somehow alters the fabric of reality such that even if a superhuman could access/trigger his powers, they would not function." I would guess that if the first factor doesn't apply -- i.e. if your power-granting equipment is manually operated and not hooked up to your brain and/or nervous system -- the negators don't target it. Such items in the possession of supervillains would undoubtedly be confiscated before they're confined in Stronghold.

[Cassandra]

The Keep - Ultramax Prison designed to hold superpowered criminals, built under Fort Knox.

 

It has been established that no insane people can access the parts of their brains to allow them to active superpowers.  The concepts of Sociopaths has largely been debunked and such individuals are send to standard supermax prisons in solitary confinement.

[BoloOfEarth]

 

Yes, there are two types of robots in Stronghold, similar to the old "Type I" and "Type lII" robots from the original version of the prison.

 

I haven't found anything in the 5E Stronghold book which specifically states a reason for the guards' equipment and the robots to be exempt from the power-negation effect; but if I were gunning for a No-Prize on the subject, I'd point to the following passage from p. 55: "First, it [the power negator] affects superhumans neurologically, preventing them from "accessing" or "triggering" their powers even though they know they have them. Second, it somehow alters the fabric of reality such that even if a superhuman could access/trigger his powers, they would not function." I would guess that if the first factor doesn't apply -- i.e. if your power-granting equipment is manually operated and not hooked up to your brain and/or nervous system -- the negators don't target it. Such items in the possession of supervillains would undoubtedly be confiscated before they're confined in Stronghold.

 

That part about "Second, it somehow alters the fabric..." seems to me like it would preclude even manually-operated equipment. 

 

(shrug)  I'm happy with the magnetic field loophole I created.  The players were certainly happy with it -- without thinking through the full implications. 

[The Arc]

In the Uberhuman Universe the prison systems don't use power negation. Mostly just superly reinforced cells and tech users having their tech confiscated. I based the Grand Gulag a lot on the penal colony of Rura Penthe in Star Trek VI and the Thorp Institute was based on the Ashecliffe Hospital from the film Shutter Island. 

 

I guess this brings up a question. In the Marvel Universe, would you consider Project Pegasus a prision?

 

I'm also sure that Question Man could list all the prisions and looney bins in the comics, he's good like that.

[Marcus Impudite]

One I've been considering for a campaign world on the drawing board:

 

"The Deep Freeze": An ultra-secure cryo-prison located in Antarctica; built, funded, and staffed by the United States and three other countries (to be named later). Cryogenic incarceration at this facility is reserved for those world-class super-criminals who are just too dangerous to keep in custody any other way. Prisoners are in cryogenic stasis for the full duration of their stay, with cryo-medtechs and a state-of-the-art computer system monitoring them 24/7. The bottom most level of the Deep Freeze is exclusively for the baddest of the bad; the prisoners who were given sentences of 500 years or more. It's no secret that many of the prisoners in this group are hoped to die in cryosleep (i.e., "go permafrost") by many in their home countries.

[L. Marcus]

Europe is also the site of the European Union's own super-prison, the Pan-European Superhuman Correctional Institute (PESCHI), on the Swedish coast of the Gulf of Bothnia. It places a greater emphasis on programs to rehabilitate criminals than Stronghold does. PESCHI lacks any "hot sleep" facilities for extremely dangerous inmates, since the EU considers that a violation of human rights.

 

I've worked at that place. The non-fictional one. It's not ten kilometers from where I sit.

[Fry Daddy]

Hey, Fry Daddy! Haven't seen you around much for quite a while. Good to know you're still kicking.

 

Figures a thread titled, "Prisons and Loony Bins" would draw your attention.

Bwahahahaha!

[Lord Liaden]

That part about "Second, it somehow alters the fabric..." seems to me like it would preclude even manually-operated equipment. 

 

(shrug)  I'm happy with the magnetic field loophole I created.  The players were certainly happy with it -- without thinking through the full implications. 

 

Well, if there wasn't some kind of exemption like that, none of the technological equipment in Stronghold would function within the negator fields. No elevators, security doors, communications, light, heat, nothing. It's hardly the biggest leap of faith you'd have to take to accept a comic-book world.

[Lord Liaden]

I've worked at that place. The non-fictional one. It's not ten kilometers from where I sit.

 

Could you elaborate a bit on what "that place" is?

[steriaca]

Could you elaborate a bit on what "that place" is?

I think it is "the real place that prison is based upon".

[Lord Liaden]

Figured that, just curious as to the details.

[L. Marcus]

It's an asylum for the criminally insane over in Öjebyn, five hundred meters from where I grew up. I've worked there as a physician's assistant. The fictional version must be more exciting.

[BoloOfEarth]

Well, if there wasn't some kind of exemption like that, none of the technological equipment in Stronghold would function within the negator fields. No elevators, security doors, communications, light, heat, nothing. It's hardly the biggest leap of faith you'd have to take to accept a comic-book world.

 

Excellent point.  I was only looking at offensive powers, but if a negator field stops, say, a person's x-ray vision, it should also stop guard radios and security cameras.  Unless, as you're saying, strictly technology-based powers are inherently exempt.

 

Though that seems to leave a big loophole allowing any tech genius supervillain to build a device to break out (assuming he can get the parts to do so).

 

Apparently, I'll need to take a deeper look at the Stronghold book at some time.

[steriaca]

Excellent point. I was only looking at offensive powers, but if a negator field stops, say, a person's x-ray vision, it should also stop guard radios and security cameras. Unless, as you're saying, strictly technology-based powers are inherently exempt.

 

Though that seems to leave a big loophole allowing any tech genius supervillain to build a device to break out (assuming he can get the parts to do so).

 

Apparently, I'll need to take a deeper look at the Stronghold book at some time.

That's not a bug. It's a feature.