People leaving a prison, an institution of specific conditions of functioning, face a huge challenge to exist in an open environment, enter into the designated social roles and meet the responsibilities associated with their performance.Isolation from the family environment causes the loosening of family ties, stigmatizes the convict, but also his relatives.Obtaining awareness of the specificity and uniqueness of the situation of a person leaving the prison, changes that have occurred in the way it functions, perceiving oneself, his place in relationships with other people, community to which he returns - can be a starting point for reflection concerning the construction of a help plan in the process of its social readaptation.Assistance provided to a leaving prison, i.e. postpenitentiary assistance, is a group of state and social activities whose aim is to provide material and mental support for persons released from prisons and help them in the process of social inclusion and readaptation.One of the legal acts regulating the problem of supporting people in a difficult situation is the Act of 12 March 2004 on social assistance provides support in the form of specialist legal advice.The aim of the study is to emphasize the importance of specialized counseling provided to people leaving penitentiary institutions, in the process readaptation and counteracting the return to crime.