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Nebraska profile
Nebraska has an incarceration rate of 601 per 100,000 people (including prisons, jails, immigration detention, and juvenile justice facilities), meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than almost any democracy on earth. Read on to learn more about who is incarcerated in Nebraska and why.
11,000 people from Nebraska are behind bars
Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Nebraska is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 30,000 different people are booked into local jails in Nebraska.
Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years
- total numbers rather than rates.
- Women’s prisons: Incarceration Rates | Total Population
- Men’s prisons: Incarceration Rates | Total Population
Today, Nebraska’s incarceration rates stand out internationally
People of color are overrepresented in prisons and jails
Nebraska's criminal justice system is more than just its prisons and jails
The high cost of being incarcerated in Nebraska
Prisons and jails in Nebraska are increasingly shifting the cost of incarceration to people behind bars and their families, hiding the true economic costs of mass incarceration:
- Jails in Nebraska charge up to $3.15 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge 94¢ for a 15-minute call.
- Nebraska does not charge medical copays to people in prison.
- Nebraska prisons charge families up to a 20% fee to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
- People in Nebraska prisons with more than $10 in their account must pay for basic hygiene products including toilet paper.
- People in Nebraska prisons earn as little as 16¢ an hour for their work.
- Nebraska charges up to 25¢ for an e-message to or from prison.
Our other articles about Nebraska
- People on parole in Nebraska can be sent back to prison for "associating" with anyone who has a felony or misdemeanor conviction — even loved ones who are trying to support them
- Nebraska's choice to criminalize "failure to appear" may be hurting public safety
- The cost of incarcerating older people is incredibly high, and their risk of reincarceration is incredibly low, yet 12% of people in Nebraska prisons are over the age of 55. Why is the state keeping so many older people locked up?
- Nebraska makes it difficult or even risky for incarcerated journalists to tell their stories.
- Nebraska is one of 20 states that locks up some people convicted of sex offenses in shadowy "civil commitment" facilities, long after their sentences are over — and often indefinitely
- Nebraska prisons are replacing incarcerated people's personal mail with scans, stifling family contact
- Nebraska prisons release about 2,336 people every year
- Nebraska hurts jury diversity by excluding people with felony records
- We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Nebraska gets an F
- Who's helping the 17,223 women released from Nebraska correctional facilities each year?
- Fixing prison-based gerrymandering after the 2010 Census: Nebraska, from the Prison Policy Initiative's Fixing prison-based gerrymandering after the 2010 Census: A 50 state guide
Other resources
- Research on Nebraska in our Research Library
Data on COVID-19 in Nebraska jails and prisons
We gave Nebraska a failing grade in September 2021 for its response to the coronavirus in prisons, noting that:
- Nebraska was one of only 8 states that failed to reduce their prison population by more than 10% during the pandemic.
- Nebraska was one of 15 prison systems that had not yet vaccinated more than 60% of the incarcerated population.
For more detail, see our report States of Emergency. Or check out these other resources:
- How many COVID-19 cases in Nebraska communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)
