The kitchen is typically where you'll want to be when attempting assault. Guards respond quickly, and people tend to move when being attacked. It's Recommended that you use tools/weapons or have the strong/deadly perks before attacking a staff memeber.
You'll need to have have them seriously injured(unconscious) for you to gain any rep. A lot of prisons have harser restrictions when attacking staff, And simply punching one will not gain you rep. As you'll be able to by-pass security easier with these objects gone. In this case metal detectors, prison and staff Doors, and generators become your highest priority. Once you've got the deadly rep, You can destroy almost everything in one hit. (Even more if a guard has problems catching you. The best place to start is in the showers, shower heads are destroyed in one hit, and if there's a whole line of them, you can easily rack up 5-20 rep. You can't afford to kill or hurt anyone, since you'll be brought up in security, and blow your chances of starting a gang. However if you want to keep that rep point (I'll explain that later) You'll need to do something else. When ever you decide to reek havoc, you'll instantly get one rep point. But how does one get rep? Simple, be the biggest jerk of the prison.
Rep points are the 'EXP' of escape mode, they are used for various things.