With the Alexander Maconochie Centre's newest accommodation unit half full, Corrections Minister Shane Rattenbury said he hoped this expansion would be the prison's last.
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Construction of new cells at Canberra's prison was completed four months ahead of schedule and $7 million under budget, Minister Rattenbury said.
Money saved will help fund the prison's industry project, a bakery and expanded laundry where prisoners will work to service the facility itself.
It's hoped the new unit would ease pressure on the chronically overcrowded prison, with an extra 112 beds in 56 cells.
The capacity of the medium-security AMC is now at 539 beds, up from 370.
Prisoner numbers peaked above 420 last year. The number of prisoners on Tuesday night was 420, which reflected average numbers for the past month.
The average number of detainees at AMC rose from 294 in 2013 to 336 in 2014, and to 373 in the 2015 September quarter.
Full-time prisoners who were held at Symonston Correctional Centre have been moved back to the AMC, meaning half of the four new wings were full.
The new facility has four wings in a X shape, a central guard room, and the paint is just dry on bright feature walls in sunlit common areas.
"It's light, it's open … it's designed to be a decent environment for people to live in," Mr Rattenbury said.
Prison general manager Don Taylor said the four segregated wings gave the centre flexibility to separate inmates where needed.
"The key thing around this … is the capability that we've got now of managing the prison in a totally different way, by separating detainees that we think shouldn't be together," Mr Taylor said.
Prisoner-on-prisoner assaults more than doubled last year, with an extra 25 incidents reported inside the AMC. Serious assaults also increased by three.
The jail has employed an extra 20 corrections officers to work at the new facility, which required eight guards to staff it each day, Mr Taylor said.
Mr Rattenbury credited the partnership between corrective services, the justice directorate and Construction Control, which worked together from the project's outset, for it coming in on schedule and under budget.
He said the directorate had briefed other departments on the model.
"We think that this sets a new standard for ACT government projects," he said.
The government was committed to programs that aimed to reduce prisoner numbers, Mr Rattenbury said.
"We are looking to make sure that jail is the option of last resort. For people that do need to be in jail … [it's] very heavily focused on rehabilitation.
"I very much hope this will be the last expansion of the jail."
