This article concerns issues which are important in both the theoretical and practical aspect. The author discusses the law in Poland that allows the exercise of parental authority and child custody by a parent who has been sentenced to imprisonment. The author focuses in particular on the practical attributes of the discussed legal regulations, showing the possibilities and ways of exercising parental authority and custody, as well as the integration of the parent who is serving a sentence with the child in accordance with the assumptions of the Polish legal system. The main aim of the work is an attempt to systematize the forms of exercise of parental authority and child custody by an imprisoned parent. In the final remarks of this article, the author summarizes the subject, pointing to the instruments aimed at maintaining the family bond, which is one of the basic variables of the process of social rehabilitation of convicts.