This study focuses on prisoners' motivation for participation in educational programs within a remand prison in Flanders (Belgium), using a standardized questionnaire (N = 486). Descriptive, bivariate, and logistic regression analyses are used to map differences in educational motives. The results show that 29% of the respondents participated in education within the institution before or during the study. The most indicated motive for participation is the desire to learn (63.2%), followed by obtaining a degree (54.7%), and making plans for the future (40.2%). These motives were clustered in motivational categories. The most occurring motivational orientations, or categories, are the micro goal (79.49%), learning (63.2%), and normalization orientation (54.7%). Social reasons and recommendations by others are less common. Furthermore, this research demonstrates differences in motivational orientations based on individual and prison-related features of the prisoners. Younger respondents, for example, are more likely to have a micro-goal orientation. Also, increased length of incarceration goes hand in hand with a decreased likelihood of the presence of the normalization orientation towards the learning. The article concludes with some practical recommendations to empower educational activity providers in responding to different motives of prisoners while developing the educational curriculum.