The prison's construction began in 1999, with some former Lakin Hospital buildings demolished to make way for the prison. Until the prison opened on January 29, 2003, there was no single women's prison in West Virginia and women were scattered across various facilities. A factory building and two minimum security housing facilities were built in 2005 and 2006. In a period prior to 2015 the WVDOC considered converting Lakin into a men's prison and moving women to another prison in
Sugar Grove. These plans were canceled since residents of Mason County and elected officials of that county and at the state level opposed this plan. On September 4, 2015,
Governor of West Virginia Earl Ray Tomblin stated that a section of the property of the nearby armory could be used as a satellite for Lakin; area residents opposed this move. ==Facilities==