This percentage can be lowered with successive failed Death Row Appeal sessions below a certain percentage, the prisoner can be executed without legal backlash to the facility regardless of the innocence of the prisoner. Death Row prisoners arrive with a ' clemency' gauge, expressed as a percentage. Prisoners are also ranked according to five different classes in the base game: Minimum, Medium, Maximum, Supermax Security prisoners as well as Death Row prisoners each different class corresponds to a different temperament and length of sentence. A player's prison is graded by an in-game report according to various factors, such as recidivism rate of prisoners that have left the prison, overall happiness, violence levels within the prison, et cetera. The player can also allow additional conditions to be applied to their game (such as simulated temperature, gang activities and more extreme weather conditions) to increase the difficulty of the game and to simulate a prison in conditions nearer to reality. The game takes inspiration from Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper, and Dwarf Fortress. The player tells the prisoners what to do indirectly by setting their schedule. The player is also able to implement various reform and labour programmes that reduce the specific prisoner's recidivism rate.

The player is also responsible for the finances of their prison, and for meeting the needs of their prisoners (e.g., sanitation). The player needs to recruit specific staff to unlock some aspects of the game (e.g., information about the prison's finances is unavailable without an accountant). The player's role is of both architect and governor with sandbox micromanagement themes, responsible for managing various aspects of the prison, including building facilities, connecting utilities, and managing staff. The game is a top-down 2D (with a partially 3D mode) construction and management simulation where the player has been hired by the CEO of a for-profit prison company to take control of building and running a prison.

Prison architect guide