Medical & Mental Health in Nebraska (NDCS)

Health care in Nebraska prisons

Unlike many states that hire a private prison-health company, Nebraska delivers care in-house through NDCS Health Services, which employs its own physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and nurses. Facilities have on-site clinics with x-ray, lab, dental, and optometry, and the system runs skilled-nursing units for higher-acuity care. The Reception and Treatment Center in Lincoln serves as the system’s healthcare hub.

NDCS does not publish its medical co-pay amount or its sick-call request process on its public website. Ask the facility’s health services unit for the current co-pay, any exemptions, and how to request care.

Mental health and substance use

NDCS provides mental-health and substance-use treatment in-house through its Behavioral Health Services, including a residential substance-use program and behavioral-health units (the Reception and Treatment Center has dedicated mental-health and geriatric units). The Lincoln Regional Center is sometimes confused with prison mental-health care, but it is a separate state psychiatric hospital run by Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services, used for court-ordered evaluations and mental-health-board commitments — not the routine provider of care inside NDCS prisons.

Raising a concern

Nebraska has two independent oversight offices — outside NDCS — that take complaints from families and the public about prison conditions and individual cases, in addition to NDCS’s own internal “Report a Concern” process.

• The Inspector General of the Nebraska Correctional System is a legislative oversight office that investigates misconduct, deaths and serious injuries, and complaints against NDCS. It accepts complaints from families, the public, and incarcerated people, and keeps them confidential. Phone (402) 471-4215; email oigcorrections@leg.ne.gov.
• The Nebraska Ombudsman (Office of Public Counsel) is an independent legislative office whose largest single category of complaints is corrections. It takes complaints about state agencies, including NDCS, from families and the public. Phone (402) 471-2035 or (800) 742-7690; email ombud@leg.ne.gov.

A complaint about an immediate medical emergency should also go straight to the facility, but these two offices give families a route that does not depend on the prison itself.

Verify Before Acting

For the general, nationwide overview of this topic, see the national guide: Know Your Rights.