LINCOLN — Nebraska has the country’s most or second most overcrowded prison system, depending on who you ask. Inspector General of the Nebraska Correctional System Doug Koebernick confirmed the rankings in his 2025 annual report released in September. In it, he wrote that Nebraska ranks first in prison overcrowding when measured by operational capacity, second behind Alabama where the crowding is measured by design capacity.

Nebraska formally entered a prison overcrowding emergency in 2020 when the system surpassed 140% of its design capacity, as determined by the available bed space across all prison system facilities. Though the way the state measures such emergencies has broadened under state law, Koebernick said the system hasn’t officially resolved its existing crisis, so the emergency remains in effect.

Several factors have heightened the problem in the short-term. The system is currently in the process of transitioning its McCook Work Ethic Camp to an ICE detention facility, which will require the relocation of some 140 inmates, and the state is continuing to repair storm damage at the Nebraska State Penitentiary that relocated another 380 inmates.

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