I'd say Alexandria. If you built some guard towers at Alexandria then it would be the same as the prison except nobody can see in.

 

The prison as in their prison well it was partially destroyed on one side so, no.
But a non destroyed prison? Hell yes. I was disappointed by their lack of added defenses around it though. They needed Morgan's spikes around the whole exterior, and some of the governors pits. Among other things to beef it up.
Alexandria is comfortable and familiar, but as far as something that can withstand attacks, weather, and the zombies? Yes a prison would be perfect.

 

ASZ for sure. Use one part of the town as a training centre. And make a defensive plan!

 

The prison without a doubt.

Solid walls, cells to sleep in, towers for lookouts...the yard for growing food, hell...could have grown food on the roof of the prison as well. So much potential for security, shame they were all pretty dumb on the show lol.

 

ASZ for sure.

Who wants to live in a prison? not me. it's not made to be comfortable or anything of the like. I feel that given enough thought, either place could be reinforced properly. In ASZ, they already have some nice walls surrounding the place, but here's what I would do to improve their defenses.

1. put the support for the walls on the proper side so that no one can scale them from the outside easily

2. build a trench around the place with ONE bridge/entry point so that all walkers will fall into the trenches and not be able to get out. this also acts as a deterent from other people who try to enter without going to the one entry point (draw bridge type)

3. place Morgan's spikes between the trench and the wall, just in case walkers or other people do pass the trenches, they will have yet another layer of defense to compete with.

4. clear all the surrounding structures and trees so that ASZ has a long line of sight to see whats coming

There are many preparations that could be made, but just these four are good enough to keep you alive for a long while and not that difficult to do. step 1 should have been done in the first place. step 2 requires shovels or some digging machinery. step 3 can be done with tree branches. step 4 can be achieved with a bulldozer or two. they should already have all of those things at ASZ if im not mistaken.

 

I don't think it is fair to compare an upgraded version of either one. We should compare the Prison and ASZ at their original stock condition.

At such, I would choose the Prison. Security is much more important than Luxury.

 

Alexandria. Mainly because I feel it would offer more interesting options in terms of planing a tactic strategy.
Granted, the prison is better and easier to fortify, but with a good plan so is Alexandria. It's not to large to be difficult to cover with 25 able people yet not so small you'd have people clustered up.
Also, it provides the advantage of offering a more friendly environment, as opossed to the bleakness of the prison.

 

I am very much set on the prison for reasons that others have stated - it is ready-made for fortification and security on multiple levels, has far more space to grow food, and is doubtless going to be better at withstanding weather and any attacks than ASZ. It could be softened a little (only so much, I concede) and made more homely over time, but still maintains those practical elements like reinforced doors, blocks you can separate off and individual cells that could be the difference between partial loss and total disaster in the eventuality that any walkers or undesirable humans did get in. It only seems so bleak because of the ideas we inevitably have of what's warm and homely - someone born and raised there might not find it quite as harsh or depressing as we might.

ASZ easily seems like a sort of comparative utopia, I think - it is possibly the last intact area where civilisation as people know it has continued in a large part. Of course, after months on the road trying to survive, and after seeing what's out there, a 'normal' house and streets and the familiarity those afford would be nearly impossible to turn down for most of us. But it is this that makes it less safe, practical and desirable in the long term for me - by virtue of its layout and buildings being this familiar and homely, they aren't really much help should anything go wrong. Surely typical human living spaces being so tactically disadvantaged and insecure is one reason so much of the world (if not all of it) has been overrun by this, and no matter how much you fortify the outside, strengthen the walls, build watch towers and clear your line of sight, I could never relax knowing that if anything did get in, the whole community would immediately be breached and your only defence left would be the exteriors of houses. At least in the prison you could close off cell blocks, retreat to different parts of the buildings etc. and know that your defences stood a better chance of protecting you by virtue of what they were designed to do previously. If ASZ or somewhere like it could have smaller secured zones within it, that might win me round a little, I guess, but it really doesn't seem remotely big enough to do that the way the prison naturally does.

In this kind of world, practicality always comes above some romanticised, nostalgic living, even if I do think it's important psychologically to maintain something that is familiar and comforting.

 

Resurrecting an old thread... thanks IONUT for this, long ago. I'd vote PRISON because it had better weather, longer growing seasons than Alexandria, which seemed to have a canal running down it, before it was polluted for the useless BBQ session.

The prison's disguise with its destruction could have been used as a defender's stronghold. Reading about Stalingrad, the Russians made the Germans suffer because the Russians fled INTO the destroyed areas and hid in the rubble. They were familiar with those defenses, the Germans storming in were not.

The same could have done well for the prison. First, they could have used noise to draw out all the zombies and dispose of them. (Maybe even putting them out into the perimeter as 'watches', or use them like the Wolves did - load them into trailers and set off alarms when trespassers tried to open them.

Once the prison was clear of danger, then seal off certain portions. Let an aggressors attack thru the obvious points and defenders could use airshafts and all other construction-features that THEY knew and the attackers did not. In structure warfare, defenders familiar with their surrounding have a huge advantage.

But the prison's poor fences - as presented - would not allow defensible farmlands. This was always the destruction in siege warfare, too. If the croplands could not be defended, any siege army with food, water and weather-shelter could sit there and starve them out.

Alexandria's problem was illustrated by the one tractor-trailer that plowed in and sewed all that destruction. It only took one.

The prison would have been infinitely better for defense IF the defenders had a brain. Fortunately for the TV series' boring longevity, they didn't. "Let's get everyone out in the open instead of sniping away."

Not "Let's draw them in - they've already filled the lawns with zombies - let's make them fight out there, too, and we'll snipe from windows. Let's see how much ammo the tank has. I'm betting 4 shells."

 

What is an ASZ ?

 

The prison