 Prisoners in open jails do not have complete freedom and are only allowed to leave the premises for specific purposes, such as going to an outside job.In Ireland, there has been controversy about the level of escape from open prisons, attributed to the use of the prison by the Irish Prison Service to transfer prisoners unsuitable for open conditions but to reduce overcrowding in the closed prisons.The idea of open prisons is to rehabilitate prisoners rather than to punish them.