Albany Regional Prison was opened as a 72-bed minimum-security men’s prison in September 1966. In February 2021 it held 302 prisoners.
Albany is a receival prison for men and women from local courts, or police for the Great Southern Region. Men may continue to reside there on remand, or after sentence, but women are transferred to a prison in Perth. It is also Western Australia’s third maximum-security prison and functions as an alternative placement option for maximum and medium security prisoners from Perth or other regions.