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[Ibid Straydrink]

On my second serious attempt at a fortress, I decided it would be neat to colonize the underground, and so I did, founding a quaint little town atop a cavernous lake. It lasted almost a year.

Toward the end of the downward spiral that was Blackale, a flying fell beast infiltrated the palace through the gaping pit of a magma forge, and descended upon the dwarfs. An "epic" battle ensued, in which the fell beast just sort of stood in the middle of the grand hall, waiting for confused and frightened cats and children to pass by, and swiped their heads off one by one. Finally, the ragtag militia squadrons brought down the beast, but were unable to restore order to the halls. Suddenly, it appeared that unsteady factions were breaking out right and left, and dwarves were aimlessly slaughtering each other in rage. The sheriff made quick work of transgressors, but that only seemed to make things worse.

So, when the going gets tough, how to the tough get going again? I've tried prisons (I think), placing cages and designating them as pits, but they never seem to be used, and he wiki doesn't give any specification as to how this designation is done. Furthermore, I've read that even with prisons, dwarfs just become exponentially more unhappy while caged, and that the only viable method of "rehabilitating" them is through more micromanagement than I am willing to do to keep well-behaved dwarfs happy.

So, could anyone who is willing please offer me (and the rest of us who keep losing fortresses exclusively to this) advice on how to deal with the fortress-breaking decline of morale that takes place at a pin drop?

[twilightdusk]

placing cages and designating them as pits,

There's your problem. A jail is a room designated from a restraint or cage. Restraints are preferred so that you can leave your prisoner a bed and some food and drink, whereas a caged prisoner has to sleep on the ground and be brought food and water. The important point being, jails are not activity zones, they are rooms you set up by pressing [q], moving over the cage/restraint, pressing [r] to designate the room, and then pressing [j] to designate the room a jail.

[Ibid Straydrink]

placing cages and designating them as pits,

There's your problem. A jail is a room designated from a restraint or cage. Restraints are preferred so that you can leave your prisoner a bed and some food and drink, whereas a caged prisoner has to sleep on the ground and be brought food and water. The important point being, jails are not activity zones, they are rooms you set up by pressing [q], moving over the cage/restraint, pressing [r] to designate the room, and then pressing [j] to designate the room a jail.

Thank you, so much. I had figured out the room designation part, but I didn't see any option as to how to designate the room. I must have missed it.

Alas, another fort down the proverbial drain. Hopefully this will prevent this from happening next time!

[twilightdusk]

remember to use the highest quality chain/bed available for them, prisoners tend to result from having unhappy thoughts, jails have to be a rehabilitation, not just a punishment.

[Ibid Straydrink]

remember to use the highest quality chain/bed available for them, prisoners tend to result from having unhappy thoughts, jails have to be a rehabilitation, not just a punishment.

It seems tedious, but I suppose I'll have to. Is there anything I should look into other than food, drink, chains and bed?

[varangian]

Chairs and tables are the other things jailed dwarves tend to miss. In my less troubled fortress I only get the odd detainee, mainly because of a mandate failure. I set up a jail whose basic configuration is:

FFFFFFFFF
 C  C  C
BBBBBBB
 C  C  C
FFFFFFFFF

Where F=Prepared meals, C=Chain, B=Booze

So when a dwarf gets chained up he won't need much if any food or drink brought to him. When it gets an inmate I build a chair and a bed either side of the relevant chain then a table next to the chair and designate the whole lot to him/her. This seems to keep inmates in a happy state, bar the odd ingrate who was so upset by the death of a cat that he went stark staring mad.