I believe that a cuffing re-work would greatly benefit everything with some positives towards prisoners, and inmates.
My first idea for a cuffing re-work would be a hold feature. This allows an inmate to be cuffed but not attached to the person, this would greatly reduce the speed of an inmate and not allow as much movement. The reason I am suggesting this is because first this would benefit the staff who are dealing with riots, but it could also benefit inmates because it allows them an opportunity to escape still. Of course this is just the baseline of what this feature would entail. Here are some addons to it to make it more balanced
When holding, if the guard who put the inmate in the hold is not near that inmate anymore, they may be released automatically due to the officer no longer being nearby due to either negligence of the inmate or.. dying.
Second, there would be a max hold time of between 30-60 seconds. And during that period the inmate can have an option to escape via breaking out of these cuffs. During the minigame, the inmate cannot move and is vulnerable + completing a difficult mini-game.
Thirdly, your staff rank would determine the number of holds you can have so for example this is what I’d go with. CAO - CO = 0 ERT - DW = 1 W-SI = 2 CP - FD = 3 CAC = 4 of course its merely a suggestion they can be altered.
My second suggestion for cuffing re-work would be solving some cuff abuse issues. Having a max cuff time of 90 seconds, not the same as holds, this is just to prevent cuff abuse and this can be applied according to the player’s respective rank. So for example, CAO - ERT 15 - 30 seconds. CO - DW 30 - 45 seconds.
Thanks for reading my ideas!
JXCarrrter