The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, NDCS, runs the Incarceration Record Search, which takes a last name or a DCS ID number, with a first name to narrow it, and offers a download of the whole listing; its disclaimer says neither the department nor the state warrants the records and sends questions about accuracy to the Records Administrator, Department of Correctional Services, PO Box 94661, Lincoln, NE 68509. The department's family questions say the search is where a person's housing location and incarceration number are found, that anything in it is public record, and that staff will not relay messages to an inmate; its public records page adds that an inmate's own file, with misconduct reports, classification, grievances and visiting records, is withheld under Neb. Rev. Stat. 83-178, so the search is the public part.
A person held before trial or on a county sentence is in a county jail, found through the Nebraska county pages. Sarpy County, for one, offers an Inmate Current Bookings page, a name search through the Nebraska Victims of Crime Alert Portal, NEVCAP, and a line at 402-949-3876 for its correctional center at 1206 Golden Gate Drive, Papillion, where booking runs around the clock and the jail reception desk is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Every jail in the state works under the Jail Standards Board's rules, Title 81, Chapter 9 of the Nebraska Administrative Code, revised May 27, 2014, which require every jail to provide mail, visiting and telephone service on terms covered below.
- Search: the Incarceration Record Search by last name or DCS ID, downloadable in full; county jail inmates are found through the sheriff or NEVCAP.
- Mail: letters, pictures and drawings to the full facility name, Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, the inmate's name and ID number, P.O. Box 247, Phoenix, MD 21131, scanned to the tablet's Facility Messages app; funds, publications and packages go to the facility itself.
- Money: through GTL/ViaPath, which also carries photos, emails, e-cards and 30 second video grams at $0.60, or by money order to the facility under the inmate accounting policy.
- Visits: approved visitors only, after a Visitation Request Form the inmate sends out and the facility takes four to six weeks to decide; requests at least seven days ahead and up to four weeks out, confirmed by email at least three days before, arrival 30 minutes early.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Nebraska's own systems: the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services Incarceration Record Search, the department's mail, money, books and photos page, the department's Visitation page, the department's Friends and Family questions, the department's Facilities page, the department's Public Records Request page, the department's Victim Services page, the Nebraska Jail Standards, Title 81 Chapter 9, the Sarpy County Department of Corrections, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The seven facilities
The facilities page lists seven: the Community Corrections Center in Lincoln at 2720 W Van Dorn Street, 402-471-0740, the Community Corrections Center in Omaha at 2320 Avenue J, 402-595-2010, the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women at 1107 Recharge Road, York, 402-362-3317, the Nebraska State Penitentiary at 4201 S 14th Street, Lincoln, 402-471-3161, the Omaha Correctional Center at 2323 Avenue J, 402-595-3963, the Reception and Treatment Center at 3218 West Van Dorn Street, Lincoln, 402-471-2861, and Tecumseh State Correctional Institution at 2725 Highway 50, Tecumseh, 402-335-5998, with a replacement for the penitentiary planned to open in Lincoln in 2028.
The victim services page explains the path: a sentenced person goes first to the Reception and Treatment Center or the women's center, gets an institutional number, fingerprints, photographs and medical and dental examinations, and is placed by a classification study that is reviewed at least once a year, so the facility in a search result changes over a sentence; the Nebraska Correctional Youth Facility at 2610 N 20th Street East, Omaha, 402-595-2000, appears on the mail page with the others.
Mail: the Maryland box and the tablet
All personal mail from family and friends, letters, pictures and drawings, is delivered digitally through the Facility Messages app on the inmate's tablet under the free profile. The envelope reads the facility's full name with no abbreviations, Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, the inmate's name and ID number, P.O. Box 247, Phoenix, MD 21131, and must carry the sender's full name and physical address; because the original is scanned, the department suggests sending copies and keeping the originals for the inmate, and limits the box to personal mail that complies with its mail policy 205.01, with delivery problems reported to TextBehind at info@TextBehind.com.
Funds, publications and packages do not go to Maryland but to the facility: the Community Corrections Center in Lincoln at P.O. Box 22200, Lincoln 68542, the Omaha center at 2320 Avenue J, Omaha 68110, the women's center at 1107 Recharge Road, York 68467, the youth facility at 2610 N 20th Street East, Omaha 68110, the penitentiary at P.O. Box 22500, Lincoln 68542, the Omaha Correctional Center at P.O. Box 11099, Omaha 68110, the Reception and Treatment Center at P.O.
Box 22800, Lincoln 68542 and Tecumseh at P.O. Box 900, Tecumseh 68450. Books come only from vendors on a list kept by the department's Legal Division, which also decides requests for a book no vendor carries, and magazines, newspapers and periodicals come prepaid and directly from the publisher; course materials for correspondence or college classes come through the institutional mailroom, and religious books from outside the list need prior authorization.
The family questions add that a new arrival may wait up to three weeks for a tablet, that mail can be sent right away, and that phone numbers must be submitted by the inmate for approval before calls begin.
Money, photos and video grams
GTL/ViaPath is the department's media provider for photos, emails, e-cards and money transfers, with the family accounts on GettingOut and ConnectNetwork and customer help at 1-866-516-0115; family and friends may also mail a money order, under the inmate accounting policy 113.02, and once funds are on the account the housing unit phone works for numbers on the approved list. A video gram up to 30 seconds costs $0.60, $0.80 with a message, $1 with a photo and $1.20 with both, and ViaPath does not refund a rejected photo, which it will be if it shows hand signs, violence or illegal activity, visitors with large amounts of money, nudity or partial nudity including infants, underwear, nightwear or bathing suits on adults or children, sexual gestures, drug use, other inmates or inmate information, or screenshots of social media or text.
Restitution ordered by a court is taken after child support and before other fees, at 20 percent of wages when the order sets no amount, never below a $10 balance, and goes to the district court clerk for the victim. Edovo supplies the tablets' education courses, with transcripts available after release at edovo.org, and ViaPath's reentry trainings stay open for a year after release.
Visiting: seven days ahead, four to six weeks for approval
Every visitor, adult or child, must be approved on the inmate's visiting list before a visit is scheduled. The inmate starts it by sending a Visitation Request Form, one for each adult and each minor, signed by a parent or guardian for a minor, which is mailed to the facility where the inmate lives; the facility takes about four to six weeks, tells the inmate, and the inmate tells the visitor. The visitation page then schedules by request: up to four adults and a reasonable number of children per in person or virtual visit, varying by facility, on one registration form; every request at least seven days before the date and no more than four weeks out, assigned first come first served with alternative dates and times asked for, confirmed by email at least three days before the visit; the number of visits a week set by housing unit and facility.
In person visitors arrive at least 30 minutes early, since late arrivals are not processed, bring photo identification from age 16 and a birth certificate for a minor's first visit, submit to search, and keep physical contact to a brief kiss and a short embrace at the start and end. Virtual visits use the visitor's own equipment and connection, with identification shown by everyone 16 and older on entering the virtual room, a birth certificate on file for every child under 16, a guardian present throughout for anyone under 19, and suspension for sharing the Zoom link or letting an unapproved person join.
An approved visitor may request a visit at any facility the inmate moves to, but a visit already scheduled does not carry over to the new facility and must be requested again; a visitor is removed from the list by writing to the warden. Each facility's own visiting procedure, under policy 205.02, sets the permitted items and the dress rules.
County jails: the state standards
The jail standards of the Nebraska Jail Standards Board, in force since 1980 and last revised May 27, 2014, bind every county jail. Mail: no limit on the length, source or volume of mail an inmate sends or receives at his own expense without clear and convincing evidence for a restriction, which must be documented; sealed confidential mail to and from counsel, courts, elected officials, the confining authority, the state ombudsman and the board, opened only in the inmate's presence and inspected for contraband but never read; cash removed from incoming mail and credited promptly, checks and money orders cashed to the account; objectionable mail returned or placed in property, never blacked out, with the sender told why; postage and paper for the indigent; delivery within 24 hours excluding weekends and holidays; and books and magazines may be required to come from the publisher.
Visiting: at least two visits a week in a detention facility, at least two hours a week in two or more visits, none shorter than half an hour, with another time at least weekly for anyone who cannot come in regular hours and special arrangements for people traveling over 150 miles; a visitor under 18, other than a spouse, may be denied unless with a parent or guardian; attorneys, clergy, physicians, probation officers and therapists visit at any reasonable time in a private room with no barrier; pat searches may be required, and a visitor who refuses may be limited to a non contact visit.
Telephone: a reasonable number of calls to counsel and family, verified emergency calls returned, legal calls never monitored, other calls monitored or recorded only where the law allows and with both parties told, and the cost borne by the inmate or the called party.
Records and notifications
A public records request goes to DCS.PublicRecords@nebraska.gov or to the Public Disclosure Unit, Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, P.O. Box 94661, Lincoln, NE 68509, in writing, citing Neb. Rev. Stat. 84-712, with contact information and a specific description and date range; the records page promises a response within four business days, charges nothing to ask, gives a cost estimate when staff time, copies or an email search run past what the statute requires for free, with ten business days to approve it, and withholds an inmate's file, medical and mental health records without a waiver or court order, intelligence and investigation material including camera footage, and anything identifying the execution team; the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to a state agency.
The victim services notification, voluntary and open to victims, witnesses, family members and concerned citizens, reports placement in a community corrections center, furloughs of 24 hours or more from those centers, a death in custody, escape and return, parole hearings, release to parole and revocation, and discharge, with registration by form to the Central Records Office at the same box and a second route through the Nebraska Victims of Crime Alert Portal; parole hearing dates and results come from the Board of Parole, and a parole eligibility date guarantees neither a hearing nor parole.
Reading a Nebraska result
A result gives the housing facility and the DCS number that every letter, deposit and visit request needs; the facility can change with each classification review, so a letter addressed to the wrong facility name at the Maryland box is the common failure. Personal mail goes to Maryland, money and packages to the facility, the visit request a week ahead once the four to six week approval is through, and anything about a county jail inmate comes from the sheriff under the state jail standards.
Questions about finding an inmate in Nebraska
Related Nebraska records
The search is one of the Nebraska records this site covers: the Nebraska arrest records guide explains what a booking makes public, the court records guide covers the JUSTICE case search, the sex offender registry guide covers the State Patrol registry, and the Nebraska county pages list each sheriff and jail.