Ely State Prison

Allegations of Inadequate Medical Care and ACLU Lawsuit

Ely State Prison was the recipient of numerous criticisms by the American Civil Liberties Union 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 thirty five 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 back to a potentially lethal medication.

On January 23, 2008, the ACLU met with the Nevada State Board of Prison Commissioners seeking a consent decree which would voluntarily have let a federal court oversee prison medical care. Nevada Governor, Jim Gibbons, and other commissioners were presented with a report by Corrections Director Howard Skolnik and Ely State Prison medical director Dr. Robert Bannister refuting Noel's findings. The commissioners rejected the ACLU's request at this point in time.

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 Corrections Department had not provided inmates with adequate medical care. The suit was settled in July 2010, with the Nevada Corrections Department agreeing to appoint an independent medical expert to monitor the prison's health care system and to submit regular reports evaluating officials' compliance with various medical requirements. It was also agreed that nurses would make daily rounds at the prison to pick up medical request forms and that inmates would have access to a registered nurse or higher level practitioner within forty eight hours of requesting medical attention.

2011 Prisoner Riot

For some time on Unit 4A, personal property was being damaged during cell searches, the phone was hardly passed out, cleaning supplies were denied, and several inmates weren’t being fed occasionally. On the night of August 3, 2011, an incident in which an officer told his colleagues about an inmate “break his arm if you have to”, was the spark to a widespread prison protest. Several protests by large numbers of inmates took place over the next couple of days. The rebellion was so tense that the warden AWO Debra Brooks, and Lieutenant Calvin Peck had to come on to the unit to dish and serve the inmates their dinner that night.

Coyote Sheff was blamed by the ESP administration for being the one to organize this demonstration of rebellion and was promptly moved to the infirmary later that evening, as a means to isolate him from the rest of the prisoners who were involved in the demonstration, in the hopes that Sheff’s removal would quell the disturbance. Yet the demonstration continued, and was carried on by the rest of the recalcitrant prisoners who remained on the A-wing of Unit 4, until finally, administration decided to separate and remove most of the prisoners involved. Some of these prisoners were moved to the infirmary, some were moved to the B-wing of Unit 4, others were moved to other units throughout the prison, while a couple remained in 4-A. Thus, the demonstration ended, with no serious injuries to staff or inmates.

2010 Prisoner Riot

In November 2009, prisoners report that inmates who had been placed in "Disciplinary Segregation" were strategically moved to wings of Ely State Prison in which they were deliberately surrounded by offenders in protective custody and prisoners suffering from severe mental illness. This was alleged to be an attempt to psychologically intimidate those transferred, and it has been related that guards escalated tensions by removing prisoners' appliances in violation of protocol and failing to respond to inmate communications.

On January 31, 2010, those imprisoned in Block 4B of the prison retaliated for these perceived abuses by inducing flooding and burning, and interfering with food slots and sprinkler systems, in an attempt to force guards into a confrontation as they tried to extract the riotous inmates from their cells. This conflict over what amounted to sixteen cell extractions left three prisoners badly injured, with one inmate requiring care from an outside hospital due to head trauma. Prisoners report that all guards involved in the altercation received some manner of injury, and that one received a debilitating stab wound.

Writings from Ely State Prison Inmates