The Alexandrovsky distillery, on the site of which the famous prison was later built, is mentioned as early as the second half of the 18th century. In 1774, the German traveler Johann Georgi wrote about this place. Soon the distillery was placed under state management, and a hard labor prison was organized on its territory, while preserving production.

The distillery housed participants of the Polish uprisings of 1830 and 1856. From 1873, criminal offenders from the European provinces of the Russian Empire began to be sent here. Many of them, after serving their sentences, continued to live near the prison, leading to the formation of the village of Alexandrovskoye, which still exists today.

In addition to the Central hard labor prison, the Alexandrovsk Central transit prison operated from 1889. It served for the temporary detention of exiles being sent to the Irkutsk province, Yakutia, and the Transbaikal region.

According to the regulations of the Alexandrovsk transit prison, exiles heading to the Irkutsk province, except for the Kirensky district, were sent from the prison year-round. Those going to the Kirensky district and Yakutia were sent during the summer navigation on the Lena River, while hard labor prisoners of the 1st and 2nd categories, heading to the Transbaikal region, were dispatched during both summer and winter navigation on Baikal.

Later, the prison became a place for political prisoners, especially after the failed revolution of 1905, when many former soldiers and sailors convicted for mutinies were sent here. Among the inmates were future figures of the Bolshevik state: F. Dzerzhinsky (1902), M. Frunze (1914), S. Ordzhonikidze (1915-16), and others. After the February Revolution, all political prisoners were released.

Under Soviet power, the territory continued to be used as a prison, and later a psychiatric hospital was established in its buildings. Currently, the buildings of the former central prison are abandoned and deteriorating. In 2017, a group of enthusiasts and historians began working on creating a museum complex at this site.