The prison was built in the northern part of the city between 1893 and 1897, with a view to alleviating overcrowding in the area's detention facilities.

[2] In 1947, Iuliu Maniu, Ion Mihalache, Nicolae Carandino, Ilie Lazăr, and other Peasantist leaders were sent to Galați and held in cells with the windows bolted shut, in order to prevent communication with outsiders.

Former anti-communist policemen arrived in 1955, and in 1957, incarcerated opposition party leaders were sent there following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, in order to be further from the border.

The notorious Nicolae Moromete [ro] became warden in 1952, imposing a reign of terror that included extreme cold, starvation, and forced labor of old and sick prisoners.

[2] Former inmates include Nicolae Carandino, Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu, Gheorghe Flondor, Ernest Maftei, and Victor Rădulescu-Pogoneanu.