When you drive I-580 in Carson City, you pass a state icon. The old Nevada State Prison in Carson City closed for good in 2012, but plans are in the works to reopen it. Not as a prison, but as a museum.
It’s been sitting idle and empty for over six years now. The old Nevada State Prison is now a stronghold of history, and as former prison warden Terry Hubert told me, "The state of Nevada could not really exist without the Nevada State Prison."
This massive fortress served Nevada as the state prison for 150 years. Before it was built, our very first territorial legislature was held on the same grounds. You could say Nevada was born there. Glen Whorton, who serves as president of the Nevada State Prison Preservation Society, says “The first constitutional convention was at the Warm Strings Hotel, which was right here."
The prison's first warden was the Lt. Governor, and it was truly a Nevada prison with, would you believe, a casino for inmates? As Whorton tells us, "You know wardens would say, 'Oh my it’s the cleanest game in the state. After all, who would cheat these guys?'" The casino's name was “The Bullpen." It thrived for over 30 years, until saner heads prevailed: "It continued until we got our first real professional warden, and he was appalled." Adds Hubert, "It really is not good correctional practice to allow gambling with your prisoners."
Inmates at the old state prison also made mattresses, license plates, books, and ran a print shop. The cells were bare bones, stark and cold. Up into the 1980's, even smaller than what is there now: two prisoners lived in a 4 ½ X 8 foot space.Â
The prison was also home to 52 executions. The death chamber is as they left it, after the last one in 2006. The building increasingly became an outdated relic and when a new state prison opened in Ely in 1989, it was no longer the state's maximum security jail. It all closed in May 2012, but the presence of the past is easily felt here. As Whorton puts it, “When you incarcerate people and imprison people, they leave some of themselves here."
Their group, the Nevada State Prison Preservation Society, wants to reopen the prison as a museum with tours. Hubert tells why: “Really, a picture's a thousand words. This is a million words to walk through." Whorton added, "And we just have really interesting stories to tell."
They, and other prison museum supporters, are getting a bill together for funding, work plans, permits and upgrades. If you'd like to join in their efforts, click their link below:
