[Texas Eagle]

Depends on where the tower is located on the wall. You wouldn't want the tower officer lowering a bucket into a yard full of inmates would you?

Uhhhhhhhh. How do the guards get out of the tower? Do they lower themselves down by rope?

[mass55th]

They enter the towers from outside with a bit key that they keep in the tower with them for their shift. You can’t take weapons down inside the prison, so when the tower is closed, the officer brings down whatever weapons and supplies he took up with him. Not all the towers around the wall are manned 24 hours a day.

[bgill]

No, they have to nifty inventions called stairs. Lowering the rope keeps the guard inside the tower (and the inmates out) rather than him running up and down the stairs and not being within sight of the yard. They’ve done it this way forever.