Beta 15 - I arrested a colonist going crazy. I think an arrested colonist should have different prisoner options. "Chat and recruit" doesn't make sense; "Release" brings the colonist back into the colony.
Additionally I have a suspicion that chat and recruit was bugging out and wasn't going to ever work on the arrested colonist -- I tried about 20 times and chat and recruit always failed, and the developer recruit tool also doesn't work on an arrested colonist.
It is a strange mechanic, and upon first looking at it does seem like you do need to recruit them back into your colony.
Should be either changed, or possibly part of the new learning system, where the first time you arrest your own colonist, the game pops up a box that explains the situation.
Yeah, when I did that the first time I wasted a lot of time recruiting my own colonist ::)
Seems like an overhaul is needed to the whole scenario of a colonist turned prisoner.
[Disclaimer: this has been mentioned in other threads already] Say you have a colonist you want to get rid of. The game provides many ways to get rid of them, but each one brings a penalty with it. Fair enough. I'd never expect to be able to ditch a colonist scot-free.
HOWEVER, you can arrest that colonist and let them escape off the map with no debuffs.