Tartarus Prison
Purpose / Function
To house the most dangerous and volatile criminal elements in the Elysium Archipelago, specifically Apollo City.
Architecture
Tartarus prison is built as a supermax facility, spanning 213 acres and sits adjacent to Apollo City's financial district. Built from steel and concrete, the design of the prison hearkens back to ancient dungeons of yore while allowing for full control of the facility via a fully integrated computer system. The entrance to Tartarus Prison is guarded by six correctional officers at all times with mounted turret guns and grenades. Unlike other prisons, a whopping majority of its space is dedicated to housing and technological hubs.
Every hallway or corridor eventually leads to one of the wings, an officers' quarter or an exit to the outside world. Food is shipped to the prison through cargo trucks due to the sheer amount of prisoners and all cleaning and sanitation is done via automation. These are the different housing facilities and recreational spaces within the prison:
Kakia Wing - Low Level Offenders
Also known as K-House, the Kakia Wing is where low-level offenders are housed within the prison. Forgery, petty theft, prostitution and other petty crimes are the common denominator for those who find themselves in this wing. Their cells are reminiscent of supermax prisons outside of the Archipelago with 9x12 cells, one window, a bunk bed, a toilet, a sink and a table.
Their cells are opened by hand by correctional officers. These offenders are able to get commissary, have the opportunity to get exercise in Eirene's Yard and can have in-person visitation. Almost all offenders here are average Apollo residents and rarely include superpowered beings.
Dolos Wing - Medium Level Offenders
Also known as D-House, the Dolos Wing is where medium-level offenders are housed within the prison. Larceny, drug solicitation, money laundering, kidnapping and other serious crimes are the common denominator for those who find themselves in this wing. Their cells are constructed with solid steel with 7x10 cells, one window, a single bed, a toilet and a sink.
Their cells are opened, closed and locked electronically. These offenders are able to get commissary once a month, are allowed to get exercise in a separate 30x20 room with a small skylight and ventilation. They are allowed to have in-person visitation once a month and all visitors must be approved beforehand by the warden. Gangs and organized criminals are usually held in this wing.
Poine Wing - High Level Offenders
Also known as P-House, the Poine Wing is where high-level offenders are housed within the prison. Murder, rape, cannibalism, crimes against humanity, genocide, spree killing and other extreme crimes are the common denominator for those who find themselves in this wing. Their cells are completely enclosed in four layers of reinforced steel and titanium with 6x8 cells, no windows, no bed and a toilet.
Four cameras are imbedded into the corners of the room to monitor these offenders 24/7 and the door of each cell has a single slot where food is received and taken. They are allowed one video visitation every six months and all visitors must be approved beforehand by the warden. Superhuman and otherworldly beings are common here.
Penthus Hall - Isolation Unit
Commonly called Hades' House, Penthus Hall is where offenders of any wing go when they break the rules of the prison. It is also where special offenders or, those too dangerous for general population, are housed. Instead of cells, offenders are placed within isolation tanks, called Morpheus Shells, and submersed in a special anesthetic liquid that places them within a pseudo-comatose state. They remain in these tanks for twenty-three hours every day and are released to consciousness for one hour.
For thirty minutes, they are allowed to exercise in a 10x20 cage with ventilation. For the other thirty minutes, they are evaluated by the prison's psychiatrists and psychologists to determine if their forced reflection and sedation has de-escalated their hazardous behavior to the point where they can be moved into general population. If not, they are placed within the Morpheus Shell for another twenty-three hours. If so, they are either returned to their previous wing or, if Penthus Hall is where they started, moved to Poine Wing for a probationary period.
Eirene's Yard - Recreational Grounds
The only part of the prison that doesn't have a fully enclosed structure, Eirene's Yard is a gorgeous field of grass not unlike the boundless wilderness of countrysides. It is surrounded by sights of Apollo City and Titans' Range, enclosed by a transparent dome of plasma. There is a bright, thin orange line which prefaces the actual wall of plasma to warn both officers and inmates of the impending limit. The dome is powered by underground generators.
Inmates are allowed to partake in weightlifting, running, card games and even sunbathing. Inmates with good behavior are allowed to gather food that grows naturally from Eirene's Yard, under the supervision of prison officers, and couple them with their commissary and prison meals for food that tastes close to that on the outside. Any violence or insubordination in Eirene's Yard poses a risk for inmates to be banned from yard time for weeks at a time or even placed into Penthus Hall.
History
Apollo City did not have any form of prison until self-regulation, made evident in the first few months, of criminal behavior became utterly impossible. The Apollo Police Department usually housed criminals in the jailhouses of their local precincts to start and were determined to stamp out crime before it escalated to the level of imprisonment. But it was the rising popularity of the Coliseum of Ares that ultimately allowed for violence to take place on a daily basis.
People became used to solving even minor disputes with fistfights and deathmatches, which disgusted a certain Alphonse McCreedy. While in the employ of the APD, he was tasked with investigating the Coliseum of Ares under suspicion that it was being used as a front for illegal activity, such as dog fighting, money laundering and the sale of illicit drugs like Stars. As he watched the sheer violence of people he knew from his daily life, he believed that if the coliseum's "sanctioned" fights were to ever spill out onto the streets of Apollo, it would spell the end of the city and of their little civilization.
From this, he got the idea of creating not just a prison but a facility where even superpowered beings could be contained. He proposed his idea to current Supreme Ochi Hasubari and explained that it would be a place where both the powerful and the weak would come together to realize the errors of their ways. Unlike other prisons across the world, Alphonse was fiercely opposed to any sort of violent treatment of the prisoners, instead opting to use cutting edge technology to subdue and lull any inmates to a point of reflection, ultimately wanting them to feel just as disgusted with their crimes as he was of the displays in the coliseum.
Supreme Hasubari agreed with his proposal and worked with current officials to begin construction of the building. Surprisingly, despite the criticism and doubt that arose from Apollo's residents, the prison ended up becoming a success for street-level criminals. Apollo Police Department emptied their jails and filled the prison, which was called Tartarus due to Alphonse promising Supreme Hasubari that "not even the Titans could escape".
Ever since its construction, both normal and superpowered criminals have been held in Tartarus Prison. To this day, it continues to stand as a tool of law and order for Apollo and its denizens.
Alternative Names
Apollo City Correctional Center | Apollo City Department of Corrections
Type
Prison
Parent Location