When the violence was stopped in the prison of Pitești, Nicolae Purcărea was transferred to the Black Sea-Danube Canal labour camp in June 1951. Shortly after, he was sent to Craiova to be involved in another trial, stopping by the prisons in Jilava and Pitești. His short return to the Pitești Prison horrified Purcărea, who did not know that the aggressors had been moved to Gherla.

He was transferred to Gherla in March 1952, where he would spend the four remaining years of his conviction. In February 1956 he was moved to Codlea, where he learned of his mother's death.