On December 19, 1985, the prison was unanimously approved by the finance committees of the Nevada Legislature to be built in the Ely area.

[6][7] In September 2024, nearly 2000 inmates, including ones on death row, were transferred from Ely to High Desert State Prison and vice versa.

[8] Ely State Prison was the recipient of numerous criticisms by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) regarding its alleged failure to provide adequate medical care to its inmates.

"[10] His report describes in detail the death of Patrick Cavanaugh, an inmate who he claims died due to complications of diabetes, after having received no insulin for a period of three years and having his ulcerated legs left to fester without treatment or amputation.

[11] The report also mentions accounts of wholly untreated cases of chronic pain,[12] hepatitis,[13] fibromyalgia,[14] rheumatoid arthritis[14] and syphilis.

[9] On March 6, 2009, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Nevada Department of Corrections, Governor Gibbons and other state officials.

In it, they sought to have a federal judge find that the Department of Corrections had not provided inmates with adequate medical care.