Cash is the bottom-left counter
Cash starts at $0. It moves when a job or pickup pays. If you walk to OJ and the counter is short, the shop will not complete the purchase. One recorded counter reached 187 after a second day of potatoes and bed stacks. That 187 is a running total, not the pay for one potato round.
The official loop is to work prison jobs, earn cash, and buy tools from OJ's Deals. Hide the tools you are carrying. The recorded pages do not document the exact hide control, so use the prompt the game shows rather than a guessed key.
Jobs with a known payout
| Work | When and where | How to finish it | Recorded pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Library books | LIBRARY segment after roll call | The desk guard shows book numbers. Find each number, press E, deliver it. | 10 cash per book |
| Peel potatoes | Cafeteria at LUNCH | Drag through Peel potatoes 5/5. It returned on day 2. | Paid per finished round; the per-round amount was not shown |
| Pick up litter | Yard during YARD TIME | Clear Pick up litter 8/8. | 20 cash for the full set |
| Kill bounty | Near another inmate, between jobs | A timed KILL pop-up. Take the target down and loot the drop. | 35 cash in the recorded pop-up |
| Cash stacks | Other inmates' beds; open prisoner transport during LOCKDOWN | Pick up the stacks. | Amount per stack was not shown |
Library numbers change. The first recorded request was #106, #032, and #140, which is 30 cash at 10 each. A later round included #043. Do not memorize one set of numbers.
Bounties are a windfall. How often they appear is not established, and the suspicion cost of taking one was not measured. One player skipped a bounty to keep suspicion down. Another took it. Neither result proves a meter change.
The prisoner-transport stacks were reached only after the window bars were off, during LOCKDOWN. They are not a morning paycheck.
What the recorded shop sold
OJ in that run is the orange-jumpsuit NPC at cell 13. Press E for the menu labeled OJ's DEALS. Shopping happened during YARD TIME, RECREATION TIME, and a failed lunch trip on day 2.
| Tool | Recorded price | What the purchase did |
|---|---|---|
| Saw | 110 cash | Cuts your own cell's window bars during RETURN TO CELLS |
| Screwdriver | 25 cash | Unscrews the toilet. Buying it set the objective to Unscrew the toilet |
| Power Drill | Free, not sold by OJ in this run | Taken from the hazard-striped workshop bench during LOCKDOWN, then used to drill dirt |
A budget from those rates only
These sums use only the numbers above. They are not a required route, and they ignore potatoes and cash stacks because those amounts were not published.
- The Saw at 110 cash is 11 delivered library books at 10 cash each.
- Both OJ tools are 135 cash. Twelve books are 120. Twelve books plus one finished litter set are 140, which covers 135 with 5 cash left.
- Eleven books plus one litter set are 130, which is 5 short of 135. One more book, or the 35-cash bounty, covers that gap. The bounty is not something you can schedule.
When another price list appears
A separate account places OJ in Cell 04, prices a Screwdriver at 25, a Spoon at 15, and a Scrap Trowel at 80, and says the trowel moves twice as much dirt per scoop. It also describes four toilet bolts and an immediate alert if a guard sees the toilet moved. Those items and the electric-chair result were not part of the HUD-labeled Saw, Screwdriver, and Power Drill route.
Do not average the lists into a new shop. Open OJ's Deals in your session. Buy the names and prices on that menu. If the menu matches the 110 and 25 tools, the window-then-drill order in the first-day guide is the supported sequence. If it shows a spoon or trowel instead, follow that menu and do not assume the free workshop drill is still there.
Tool pages for the recorded three are under Equipment.