The principle of normality emphasises that those sentenced to imprisonment have the same right to education as everyone else in society. The punishment is only the loss of freedom. Prisons arrange both general and vocational education in co-operation with the nearby educational institutions. The educational institutions give prisoners their study certificates which include no indication of that the studies were completed in prison.

In 2009, an average of 305 prisoners participated in education daily. Prisoners can participate in education, which is within the scope of the educational administration, providing that they fulfil the general requirements concerning the eligibility of students or the criteria of students with special needs. Studying in accordance with vocational goals requires that the prisoner has adequate working and functioning capacity. The organisation of education for prisoners is also influenced by the available study subjects, the personnel and other resources, as well as the place where the prison sentence is served and the length of the sentence. The education of prisoners has to also comply with the national curriculum and competence-based qualifications approved by the Finnish National Board of Education and the local curricula drawn based on those.

Prisoners have various educational needs. During the sentence term, it is possible to complete a basic education or a general upper secondary education syllabus entirely or partly, or improve vocational skills by completing parts of vocational qualifications or a whole qualification. Prisons have also arranged primary studies meant especially for Romany prisoners. According to a survey, over six per cent of prisoners have not completed the basic education syllabus. On the other hand, some prisoners need higher education.