Ashfield YOI in Bristol, which has space for as many as 400 young offenders, will become an adult sex offender jail.
The move is part of a government drive to build new capacity to replace older adult prisons and bring down the cost of the system.
The Youth Justice Board (YJB) announced last September that it was planning to decommission YOI places due to falling custody levels.
Latest statistics show there were 1,595 under-18s in custody in October – a fall of more than 400 in 12 months, when the figure stood at 2,021.
A spokeswoman for the MoJ said a timeframe for the changes at Ashfield has yet to be decided.
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