The goal of work arranged in prison is to maintain and develop a prisoner’s vocational proficiency and working capacity. This improves the prisoner’s possibilities to make a living also after release. In addition, working normalises the everyday life in prison.

Approximately 35% of all prisoners work daily. Half of the working prisoners participate in domestic care, real estate maintenance or construction work of prisons and the other half in production work. The products are sold to state and municipal institutions, to the business sector or directly to private consumers from prison shops.

Prison work branches include:

• carpentry
• metal industry
• agriculture
• construction work
• sign production (traffic sings, register plates)
• packing and assembly as subcontract work
• wood construction industry (e.g. log products, building modules)

In 2009, the annual income of prison production was about 10.2 million euro of which the internal income was about 2.5 million euro. Some of the products, such as cell furniture and prisoner clothing, are made for prison use. With the income, it is possible to cover the direct production costs, prisoners’ activity allowances and open prison wages.

The regular working hours of prisoners is at most 38 hours 15 minutes per week in open prisons and 35 hours per week in closed prisons. Prisoners who work are paid an activity allowance in closed prisons and wages in open prisons.

The prison work activity is based on the principle of normality: the work carried out by prisoners should correspond to the work commonly performed in society. Furthermore, rehabilitative work should comply with the general methods of vocational rehabilitation. Prison work can be carried out as apprenticeship training, which enables a prisoner to complete a competence-based qualification or parts of a qualification.

On certain conditions, a prisoner can be allowed to work outside the prison (civilian work). In addition, a prisoner can carry out work on his or her own account (own work).