[1] The prison is adjacent to the Obo railway station, and located northeast of the city centre, at the foot of Mandalay Hill.

[2] King Mindon founded Mandalay in 1857 as the new royal capital of the Konbaung dynasty.

In this prison, heavily-guarded Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was brought on 25 January 1925, at midnight and spent almost three years there.

[6][circular reference] A new prison was built in 1992 by the State Law and Order Restoration Council, the ruling military junta, to replace a pre-colonial jail inside Mandalay Palace, amid domestic unrest following the 8888 Uprising.

[9] In August 2022, several prisoners were shot for staging a hunger strike, in response to the high-profile execution of anti-coup political activists, including Kyaw Min Yu and Phyo Zeyar Thaw.