The prison first opened in 1939 with a capacity of 600 beds, replacing the former Speigner Reformatory.

[1] Speigner had been founded circa 1900 and employed inmates on a farm and cotton mill on site.

[2] It was destroyed by fire in November 1932[3] Draper retains a farming operation and a furniture plant, as well as vocational training and employing inmates on facility maintenance.

[1] It was named for Hamp Draper, the then-director of the state corrections department.

Elmore is the site of three Alabama state prisons: Draper, Staton Correctional Facility which is immediately adjacent, and the Elmore Correctional Facility about a mile to the east.