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[Moosey]

Are jails no longer self-sustaining?  It used to be that a prisoner (usually a random innocent that a noble fingered for the crime of whim delinquency) would be brought food and water while incarcerated.  Now all my prisoners seem to starve or die of thirst.  I've tried putting small food and booze stockpiles in the prison, but now the prison is overrun with people who'd rather eat in the small, dank cell than the expansive, luxurious dining hall next door.

So.  Is there a way to keep prisoners alive, and non-prisoners out?

[Newbunkle]

Do you have a well and some spare buckets?

[Moosey]

All my buckets seem to be either in hospital storage, or rendered useless by being partially full of water.  Are hospital buckets not available for prisoners?  I'll make more.  SO MANY MORE.

[Carrock]

Designate a pond and cut off supply to any water source and I think that they'll empty out any buckets lying around.

[Khift]

I always turn my jails into resorts, complete with golden, gem encrusted statues, table and chair, bed, and a one tile prepared food stockpile and a one tile booze stockpile.

Food hauling jobs are much more reliable than the bring food / water job.

[ral]

What he said. Beds, tables, chairs, fancy stuff. Tables and chairs help out when a manager needs to approve work orders from prison.

Jail cells with food stockpiles will get raided by random dwarves, don't think there's anything you can do about it really, but it's still worth placing food/drink in the cells. Marking the cells as restricted traffic areas might help, but might also discourage refilling of the stockpiles. Also, placing the entrance to the prison area near some sort of high traffic or meeting area might help a little. I usually create jail cell clusters on their own level off of a central stairwell where they aren't many hops from a well and meeting area.

[Hyndis]

1 tile big plump helmet stockpile, because plump helmets are very easy to grow and almost always in massive oversupply. Have access to water so dwarves can drink on their own, and the chain in the middle.

[FuzzyZergling]

You can restock those 1-tile stockpiles by using the "take from" option.
Unfortunately, you can only do this one at a time.

[Tryble]

Actually, you can designate a large stockpile, and remove chunks of it so that it becomes a series of 1x1 stockpiles, but when you query one to 'take from' another pile, they are all treated as one stockpile.  Only need to do so once if you do it like that.

It's handy.

[TigerPlushie]

...GAH! Why didn't I think of this earlier?
Pools are too much a hassle. Might as well just build a connection to the actual reservoir :O

...well, that's about too late for my fortress. There's something beneath the prison already T_T

[synkell]

Flood that area then ! (^_^) . To HFS with the consequences!

[melomel]

Designate the cell's table/chair as an office/dining room owned by the prisoner; it will keep interlopers out and keep the incarceree's spirits up.

Second the suggestion to create a patchwork stockpile.

[Hyndis]

Make a small plump helmet stockpile for your main food supplies, such as 5x5. Have no other stockpiles accept plump helmets except for the tiny 1x1 stockpiles in the prison cells. Then grow plump helmets all year round so that you will be massively overproducing and extra crops will just rot in the field.

This ensures that all plump helmet stockpiles will be fully stocked at all times.

[Sizik]

Actually, you can designate a large stockpile, and remove chunks of it so that it becomes a series of 1x1 stockpiles, but when you query one to 'take from' another pile, they are all treated as one stockpile.  Only need to do so once if you do it like that.

It's handy.

Or (for mini stockpiles over a larger area than one stockpile can cover), you can have a series of 1x1 stockpiles, such that each one takes from the one before it, with the first one taking from you main food stockpile. This way, food will trickle down the stockpile chain, filling up empty spaces. (This, combined with burrows, actually seems like a good way to have a "stockpile bucket chain" of sorts.)

[MonkeyHead]

1: resticted traffic designation in jail containing dorf happy decorations, and small piles of food/booze for miscreants. i tend to go for this.

2: Theoretical option I am considering trying: self sufficient convicts. small farm next to chain, so prisoner can grow own food, small well also as water source. all in a 3 by 3 room, locked until sentence is over.