Swift Prison

Swift Prison is a rarity for Taldan prisons, in that it is not on the frontier, rather it is within Old Cassomir, and financed by the Imperial Navy.

Management of the prison

Under the watchful eyes of the thief-takers, who are trained in the "Rules of the Swift" and who memorize the faces of every prisoner, few prisoners have ever escaped in the prison's more than ten-century-long history.

Parts of the prison

The prison complex is built to a design by engineers from the Ismacco family, including a golden statue at the front of the prison.

Not merely a standard prison, it is also a complete city block with blocks of apartments, a factory, shops, even an open-air market. Lesser criminals, non-capital offenders, under "house arrest" are given leave to walk the entire city block upon which the thousand-plus-year-old prison is housed, (within the confines of the "Rules of the Swift" which form an invisible wall that earns the death penalty for those who cross it).

Capital offenders, those awaiting the monthly "workman's holiday" and their parade to Pharasma's Pulpit to meet Maximilian Marley, Cassomir's Lord High Executioner, are contained in the central prison keep under heavy chains.

Other parts of the prison include:

Beggar's Lane

an east–west-running road in the middle of the prison complex, immediately north of the central keep

Convict Market

an open-air bazaar

Debtor's Lane

a east–west-running road in the north of the prison grounds that separates the factory block from another block containing apartments and shops

gardens

beautiful gardens separate the central keep from the wealthy inmates' houses

Greedy Narses

the largest prison building houses an indoor market, a mess hall, a chapel, and beggar's boxes of Stavian's Fair

homes

abutting the central keep are relatively well-made homes housing the wealthier inmates able to afford them

keep

located in the heart of the prison

middle complex

a block containing apartments and shops

Miscreant Alley

a northern backstreet running north–south to the east of the factory and apartment block

northern complex

the factory and apartment block

statue

a golden statue stands to the south of Greedy Narses at the southern entrance to the prison

Stavian's Fair

damp cellars used for beggars

Recent history

A 4710 AR Aspis Consortium plot—involving dero worshippers of Groetus abducting all of the prisoners and guards, taking them through the cellar known as Stavian's Fair and the extensive Ismacco tunnel system, to the Darklands—resulted in the theft of Swift Prison's (and even one of Taldor's) greatest treasures: the artifact known as the bell of obedience.

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.