Ely State Prison (ESP) is a maximum security penitentiary located in unincorporated White Pine County, Nevada, about north of Ely. The facility, operated by the Nevada Department of Corrections, opened in July 1989. the prison has a staff of 406 and is a major employer in the Ely area. As of September 2010, the prison housed 1,077 male inmates. The state's death row for men is located at Ely State Prison, as is the execution chamber, which opened in 2016. History Residents of Ely, Nevada spent a year and $25,000 lobbying for the prison to be built in the area. On December 19, 1985, the prison was unanimously approved by the finance committees of the Nevada Legislature to be built in the Ely area. The prison opened in July 1989. Phase I was completed and opened in August of that year. Phase II was completed November 1990. Originally Ely had a capacity of 1,054; as of 2010 its capacity is for 1,150. The prison has a staff of 406 and is a major employer in the Ely area. Allegations of inadequate medical care and ACLU lawsuit 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. Dr. William Noel, a medical expert retained by the ACLU, produced a report in December 2007 that described his review of the medical records of 35 prisoners from ESP. He wrote that "the medical care provided at Ely State Prison amounts to the grossest possible medical malpractice, and the most shocking and callous disregard for human life and human suffering, that I have ever encountered in the medical profession in my thirty-five years of practice." 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. The report also mentions accounts of wholly untreated cases of chronic pain, hepatitis, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis and syphilis. The report also notes cases in which an epileptic patient was not regularly equipped with a helmet; in which a stroke sufferer was not given any physical therapy nor even an arm brace to prevent the eventual contraction of his affected limb; and in which a patient was switched