The United States Army built a camp in Ogwell and shooting range in Denbury in the run up to the invasion of Europe in 1944.

The prison officially opened in July 1974, although some of the wooden huts remained in use whilst building and landscaping continued into the eighties.

From the 1990s Channings Wood gained a reputation for pioneering therapeutic work to reform sex offenders and drug addicts.

Channings Wood was praised again in a report in 2005 which highlighted the prison's education programme, accommodation and levels of safety.

The prison provides educational courses to prisoners, include Barbering, Business Studies, Catering, Industrial Cleaning, Creative Media Studies, Customer Services, Driving Theory, Dry-Lining, Electrical Installation, ESOL, Food Hygiene, Fork Lift Driving, Horticulture, Information Technology, Painting and Decorating, Physical Education and Yoga.