In my newly created Epic account, still in the starter zone. I have a cobra all kitted out for bounty hunting. D rated everything except shields, cause those are E in the zone. For the optionals: Shield, hull and module reinforcements. The extra toughness helps. I did save two slots for a small cargo rack, and one small collector limpit controller to scope up anything useful. Just be careful if you pick up any 'illicit' (ie not yours, or stolen) cargo. If the space police scan you with it, it's a fine, or they shoot you down. I collect the engineering mats for later in this new Cmdr's ED journey.
Npc bounties are not given, until the Npc ship explodes. Never heard of a prison module. I am also not sure if I have seen an escape pod after I made an NPC kill. I just usually check the engineering 'material's to scoop up what I want. And you can open your cargo hatch and scoop them, much quicker with collector limpits however.