Prison Architect's alpha 12 update breaks out the booze and drugs

The latest update for Introversion's Prison Architect is all about contraband. Prisoners - already notorious for their love of the illicit - will attempt to steal things from rooms that contain any one of a number of different categories, including alcohol, drugs, weapons and, for some reason, toilet brushes. It's a good thing prisons are better stocked than our office: all they'd be able to pinch would be discarded coffee cups, chocolate snacks and copies of The Sims 3: Showtime.

Contraband will be either carried or hidden by prisoners, with a successfully executed search revealing the concealed item and showing its route through the prison - allowing you to take steps to secure problematic areas. If it gets too much, players can order a shakedown, searching the entire prison at the cost of making your convicts a lot angrier.

Also introduced in this update is a status effect for prisoners suppressed by solitary confinement, which will make them temporarily more compliant. Introversion's Chris Delay reveals that this is the first step towards allowing the player to create tougher, more brutal prisons.

For more on Prison Architect, be sure to pick up the latest issue of the UK magazine. It's on the cover and everything.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.