Introversion has patted down Prison Architect Alpha 31 and deemed it suitable for release into the general community. This update adds a couple of major things in the form of lawyers and death row executions (can’t have one without the other, really) and introduces the Reception Area as a new room.

Lawyers allow you to partake in some dubious legal loopholes within your prison, such as the removal of minimal cell sizes (oh dear.) You’ll also need lawyers if you’re planning to dabble in the thoroughly dark area of death row.

Once you have a lawyer and designated ‘death row’ cells, special (and rare) death row prisoners will start showing up. These chaps have the right to an appeals process, and have an associated chance of clemency.

If you press ahead with executions without following the proper appeals procedure, the state will take a very dim view of your work. A $50,000 fine will instantly be applied, and any remaining death row prisoners will immediately be transported away from your prison. Screw up three times, and you’ll be fired.

As usual with these Prison Architect updates, you can see Chris and Mark from Introversion introducing all the new additions and changes in a lengthy video. Today’s offering is 40 minutes long, and can be seen below.

If you’d prefer to just read a changelog style summary, then that can be found on the Steam Early Access community hub for the game.

Those who own Prison Architect on Steam should have their game automatically update to Alpha 31. If it doesn’t, try the usual tactics of restarting Steam or verifying the game cache.