This article presents the rights of Prison Service officers regarding the preventive use of direct coercive measures. The concepts of the use and application of direct coercive measures were defined in relation to the Prison Service. The purposes of preventive use are presented with examples. The catalogue and basic principles of the use of direct coercive measures, which can be applied as preventive measures in the Polish Prison Service, are described. The above issues were adapted to the statutory protective tasks of this formation.