Blackstone Federal Penitentiary

BLACKSTONE FEDERAL PENITENTIARY

In 1964, the federal government commissioned a prison capable of holding super-powered inmates in response to the growing number of super-criminals. Blackstone Penitentiary was the first of its kind and remains in operation today.

Formed of dark granite jutting out of the sea, “Blackstone” aptly describes the small, isolated island about a mile and a half beyond Freedom City’s Great Bay. It was a military weapons depot and brig affiliated with Lonely Point during the Second World War, decommissioned by the federal government and later refitted as a super-prison.

Operational as of 1964, Blackstone has become the de-facto prison for many American super-criminals. Blackstone saw many escapes in its early years but fewer after Warden Jerry Kramer accepted Daedalus’ assistance in redesigning the cell blocks in 1966. The Blackstone Riots of 1983 saw the warden and 40 guards killed by inmates trying to escape; only the coolheadedness of a few guards (including then-rookie Joshua Drummer) and the technology of Dr. Abby Wallace kept all the prisoners on the island. The only prisoner casualties of the riot were its instigators—Doc Abattoir and Countess Azure—and the villains Ramrod, Sir Razor, the Wrath, the Silver Satyr, Ms. Malice, and the pyrotechnic triplets ConflagNation (all killed by other inmates or by not retreating from energy barriers erected against their escape).

Omega struck Blackstone during the Terminus Invasion, his Omegadrones blasting away the western wall of the complex and unleashing many of the prisoners to sow chaos, or become agents of the Lord of the Terminus. After that, the surface structures of the prison were almost all moved underground.

At first glance, the complex has only two visible buildings: the arrival dock and boathouse and the low structure atop the lonely rock hill, used as a secondary watch post. Below ground, and accessible from either building, is where Blackstone truly begins: a series of corridors and chambers cut from solid rock. Tunnels connect all sites, and a monorail provides personnel with fast transport to all areas of the penitentiary and around the mile-deep central core.

Blackstone has a Command and Control (C&C) room at the heart of the complex, where administrators and senior guards monitor all activities within the prison. There are barracks and personal apartments for staff in the uppermost parts of the complex (within 80 feet of the surface and reachable by stairwells if the prison is not on alert). Fresh air cycles into the prison constantly, and supplies come in by ferry twice a week. A geothermal tap supplies energy for cell integrity, life support, and defenses, with tidal power from the currents around the island covering all other energy needs. Life support, air, and some foodstuffs come from hydroponics bays lining the central core.

Prisoners reside no closer than 150 feet to the surface and the most dangerous are kept in the deepest levels of the complex. All cells are off corridors radiating out from the central core, with six-man guard posts at each end of corridor. At the center of each corridor is a common room where prisoners congregate for up to four hours a day. Unless they have visitors or are paroled, most prisoners do not leave their security corridor. There are 24 cells along each 200-foot corridor, 12 on each side; between 15 and 20 of these corridors (out of 30) are operational and occupied at any time. For the most dangerous inmates, security reduces the number of cells to eight with 20 guards. All prisoners have cells customized specifically for them, and energy fields permeate the rock walls of the cells, preventing anyone from digging their way out. Artificial diamond-matrix panels (Hardness 18) seal the front of the cells, allowing full visual contact with prisoners at all times, though they do have some limited privacy by staggering cells entrances across the corridor. Found in the common rooms and nearly everywhere in the complex are the main defenses of the prison, supplementing any individual defenses placed on any inmate’s cell and controlled from the guard posts, C&C, and by senior Blackstone personnel with special control pads. These defenses include:

• Powerful strobe lights aimed into each individual cell (visual Dazzle, Reflex/Fortitude save DC 18).
• Anesthetic gas released into the security corridors or cells (Fatigue, Fortitude save DC 20).
• An electrical field along cell seals, security corridor floors, cell walls, and floors (Stun, Fortitude save DC 22).
• Seismic sensors (Tremorsense, Notice +8) pick up any digging in the surrounding rock and trigger force fields (rank 12) around the intrusion areas.

WARDEN JOSHUA DRUMMER

Joshua Stormcloud Drummer, the warden of Blackstone, is one of the most respected people in Freedom City who doesn’t wear spandex to work. Some people say Warden Drummer must have super-powers to do the job he does, but the warden makes no comment. He simply insists Blackstone be run efficiently, morally, and safely. Drummer is the fourth warden of Blackstone and he’s had the longest tenure, promoted from Security Chief in 1990. Since then, Blackstone has become the paramount prison on Earth despite the setbacks of the Terminus Invasion. While AEGIS wanted the primary say in the prison’s reconstruction, Drummer used his political pull and kept the redesign in the hands of Abby Wallace, John Warden, Daedalus, and the Raven. Although he claimed he was doing what he considered best for the project, Drummer also secretly enjoyed causing trouble for AEGIS Director Harry Powers.

Warden Drummer is the strong-and-silent type. While he is proud of the technological marvels in his prison, he prefers psychology and tactics to keep the inmates in line. He’s not averse to providing concessions to prisoners, but he’s equally quick to revoke privileges from any troublemakers. He believes in rehabilitation, and his demands have resulted in a better staff of psychologists and therapists. He makes it a point to know the names of everyone on the prison staff, and he cares about their safety first, then the security of the prisoners, and finally, his own. Joshua sees the prison, its inmates, and its staff as his sole responsibility, and he takes it very seriously.

ABIGAIL WALLACE

Dr. Abby Wallace joined the staff at Blackstone decades ago and while she was an innovative inventor and designer of superhuman restraints, previous wardens disliked her no-nonsense attitude and unwillingness to play politics. Her demands for more humane treatment of prisoners and calls to redesign much of the prison were also unpopular. When Joshua Drummer was promoted to Warden, he promoted Abby to Chief of Security and got her the budget she needed to redesign Blackstone the way she envisioned it. It took three years to complete the revamp of the prison, but Blackstone’s record has improved and there’s no denying the prison is safer and more secure than ever. Abby, while brilliant, lacks tact and tends to step on people’s toes. She spends most of her time in Blackstone’s C&C, monitoring “her baby” at or designing new cells for incoming prisoners. She used to have a life away from the prison, but her husband died in the Terminus Invasion and she’s spent the last ten years becoming more and more consumed by her work. She had a brief affair with John Warden (see Warden in Chapter 6) when the two of them worked together redesigning Blackstone. She realizes now their relationship was largely a way of consoling her grief over the death of her husband, and it blinded her to Warden’s obsessions. The breakup was bitter, and she wonders if it was part of what pushed John over the edge to become a criminal. Use the Scientist archetype from Chapter 11 of Mutants & Masterminds for Dr. Wallace, giving herthe Inventor feat, and both Craft (electronic) and Craft (mechanical) at the listed ranks.

BLACKSTONE SECURITY (“ BLACKGUARDS”)

There are hundreds of security officers at Blackstone who rotate on six different 4-hour shifts. Guards remain on the island unless on furlough, two days out of every ten, living in on-site barracks the rest of the time. Blackguards train and work in pairs and quartets, preventing prisoners from overwhelming a single guard. Basic Blackguard tactics focus on keeping prisoners contained first, subdued second, so problems with more than one inmate often have guards using force fields to limit their movement before they move in to secure the prisoner.

Blackguards have access to MAX and Super-MAX armor and usually have six MAX units on-duty at any given time (Super-MAX units are only broken out in times of emergency). In keeping with their nickname, Blackguard power-armor units are painted in grey-black urban camo schemes.

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