So, I decided to break down and buy this on Saturday after dropping my wife off at the airport. It was probably around 4 pm. When I finally called it quits last night, I had played about 19 hours. Whoops.
Prison ArchitectThe premise of the game is pretty simple: You get some starting cash and have to build a working prison with it. It will need to include things like:
Holding Cells,
Kitchen,
Cafeteria,
Administrative Offices,
Showers,
Assorted other Stuff™ that keeps prisoners from getting pissed off and rioting.
Meanwhile, depending on how (un)happy your prisoners are, they will try to escape, try to tunnel out of their rooms, get into fights with each other, get into fights with the guards, steal silverware and other tools, and generally cause headaches.
Currently making money is a bit of a challenge. You get some starting cash and some grants and then you have to make do. Most of the money you get for each prisoner is eaten up paying the staff. On the other hand, you can sell a prison and start the next one with the proceeds - roughly equal to all the money you put into it. Then you re-qualify for the grants, so you end up with an extra ~$100k for each new prison.
Doing this just before things get out of hand (big riots are hard to get under control and the resulting murders usually hurt the value of the prison) lets you take whatever lessons you've learned and apply them to the next, larger prison.
So yes, this game is awesome. If you enjoy planning and such like, Theme Park type games, but would like the risks to be greater (rioting and other violence), you might like it. It can be maddeningly difficult and unforgiving, but saving and reloading is your friend.