The prison is a maximum security establishment which also houses fine defaulters and those on remand from the courts of Angus, the Dundee City council area, Perth and Kinross and the northern part of Fife.

[1] The main building, a half-mile (1 km) south of the city centre beyond the South Inch, was constructed by architect Robert Reid (1774–1856) from 1810-12 to hold French prisoners captured during the Napoleonic Wars, when it was known as the Depot.

A second building, Friarton Hall, which was, until 1999, a separate institution known as HM Prison Friarton, was situated opposite the southern end of Moncreiffe Island, 1+1⁄4 miles (2.0 km) south southeast of the town centre.

[3] When the gallows at HMP Barlinnie were removed in 1995, the Perth facility was retained for use in the unlikely event of a death sentence being executed for one of the remaining capital offences.

After the final abolition of the death penalty for all offences in 1998, it became an officer training facility and was demolished in 2006.