Prison and Probation Service of Finland

The primary duty of the Prison and Probation Service is to see that the sentences passed by the courts of law are enforced lawfully and safely in Finland. In particular, the Service’s goal is to enhance the safety of society by decreasing sentenced offenders’ risk of reoffending.

In the Prison and Probation Service, the planning of the sentence term of remand prisoners, sentenced prisoners, and community sanction clients as well as the enforcement of the sanction, i.e. the actual serving of the sentence including the release phase, form a coherent entity.

Prison and Probation Service – goal of operations

The operators of the Prison and Probation Service have one common basic duty, which is the enforcement of criminal sanctions. Based on that duty, all the employees of the Prison and Probation Service attend to the legal and safe enforcement of sanctions.

Legality also means compliance with the principle of normality. The sentenced sanction should have no more effect on the life of the sentenced offender than the restrictions caused by the punishment itself.

The aim is to plan the sentence term so that the sentenced offenders can improve their abilities to live without crime. When the sentenced offenders can practice the skills promoting their life control during the sentence term, they have a better change to reintegrate into society as its full members after serving the sentence.