It was opened on 14 July 1880 as a maximum security penitentiary on a hill overlooking the Memramcook River valley.

It is now, having been built three years after Stony Mountain Institution (1877), the second oldest federal corrections facility in Canada still in operation following the closure of Kingston Penitentiary on September 30, 2013.

The prison became notorious following World War II as it was responsible for all maximum security offenders in Atlantic Canada.

It was replaced by the modern Atlantic Institution in Renous and was downgraded to handle medium security offenders.

[1] Together with Springhill Institution, Dorchester Penitentiary handles all medium security offenders in the federal system in Atlantic Canada.