The article discusses the issues related to the employment of prisoners in Poland and in other countries. The author refers to some legal provisions regulating the question of who can undertake an employment while serving time in prison, what requirements must be met by convincts who work while imprisoned. Then, the article discusses particular professions performed by prisoners. An important element of the article is also apresentation of socio-psychological aspects of rendering work while incarcerated. Since one of the reasons for writing this article was the announcement in 2016 of the “Work for prisoners” programme, a significant part of the article is devoted to discussion of this project. An attempt is made to answer the question: Has the governmental programme in question proved successful? Instrumental in answering this question is a comparison of a number of prisoners before the start of the said programme, and while being a part of its operation. The article also includes some examples of influencing prisoners already successfully implemented in other countries.