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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

Also see these Nebraska graphs:

• 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

In the U.S., incarceration extends beyond prisons and local jails to include other systems of confinement. The U.S. and state incarceration rates in this graph include people held by these other parts of the justice system, so they may be slightly higher than the commonly reported incarceration rates that only include prisons and jails. Details on the data are available in States of Incarceration: The Global Context. We also have a version of this graph focusing on the incarceration of women.

People of color are overrepresented in prisons and jails

See also our detailed graphs about Whites, Hispanics, Blacks, and American Indians/Native Americans in Nebraska 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.

Our other articles about Nebraska

• 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

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)

Other resources

• Research on Nebraska in our Research Library