It carried out the first death sentence by gas chamber in the United States with the execution of Gee Jon on February 8, 1924.

The legislature had been leasing the hotel from Abraham Curry and using the prison quarry to provide stone material for the Nevada State Capitol.

In 1864, the territorial legislature acquired the hotel along with 20 acres (8.1 ha) of land from Curry, who was appointed the first warden of the prison.

[1] On September 17, 1871, lieutenant governor and warden Frank Denver was seriously injured in a prison break that involved 27 inmates.

[8][9][10] In 1872, Denver refused to concede the prison to Pressly C. Hyman, who had been appointed the new warden under legislation that repealed that responsibility from the lieutenant governor.

The Bullpen's closure came after new Nevada Governor Paul Laxalt hired Carl Hocker as the prison's warden.

Hocker ordered the casino to be shut down and for gambling to be replaced with more "wholesome" activities such as volleyball, ping pong and painting.

In response to Mormon preferences,[15] the Nevada State Legislature passed a statute in 1910 that became effective in January 1911,[16] allowing condemned prisoners to choose between execution by shooting or hanging.

[17] After warden George W. Cowing was unable to find five men to form a firing squad,[18] a shooting machine was built to carry out Mircovich's execution.

Condemned murderer Gee Jon of the Hip Sing Tong criminal society became the first person to be executed by this method in the United States.

[21] Warden Dickerson sent his assistant Tom Pickett from Carson City to Los Angeles, California to personally pick up 20 pounds of lethal gas, which was contained in a mobile fumigating unit, at a cost of $700.

[20] On October 22, 1979, convicted murderer Jesse Bishop became the first person to be executed at the prison after the state legislature reinstated the death penalty, following the lifting of a national moratorium on capital punishment.

[31] Nevada State Prison employed and provided vocational training for inmates in its factories, which produced mattresses and license plates.

In February 2010, Nevada Department of Corrections Director Howard Skolnik notified employees that the prison system faced an $880 million deficit.