Transfers & Finding Someone in Nebraska (NDCS)

Finding someone

NDCS publishes an online locator — labeled “Incarceration Records” (linked from the NDCS site as “Find an Incarcerated Individual”) — that you can search by last and first name or by DCS ID number. It is the reliable way to confirm where a person is currently held.

One naming note that trips families up: if you were told someone is at the “Diagnostic and Evaluation Center” (DEC), that facility was merged in 2022 into the Reception and Treatment Center (RTC) in Lincoln. The “DEC” name still appears in some records and addresses, but it is now part of RTC.

Reception and classification

Newly sentenced people do not go straight to a long-term prison. Where they start depends on sex:

• Men are received at the Reception and Treatment Center in Lincoln, the statewide intake center, where intake and classification historically take about 30 days.
• Women are received at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York, the only women’s prison, which runs a 30-day orientation program.

During this period a person is evaluated and assigned a custody level, and visiting generally cannot begin until a visitor has been approved (typically four to six weeks). See Visiting in Nebraska.

How transfers work

NDCS reclassifies and moves people among its facilities based on custody level, programming, and bed space. NDCS does not run a general service that notifies families when someone is transferred. The available alerts are opt-in and designed for registered victims and witnesses, through Nebraska’s NEVCAP system (the state’s successor to VINE, run by the Nebraska Crime Commission) and a separate NDCS victim/witness program. For a family member simply tracking where someone is, the locator above is the practical tool — check it again after a move.

Overcrowding and a new prison

Nebraska’s prison system is among the most overcrowded in the country — by one measure used in the state Inspector General’s reports, the most overcrowded by operational capacity — and has been under a declared overcrowding emergency since 2020. Overcrowding is part of why people are moved between facilities. A new multi-custody prison is under construction in northeast Lincoln, scheduled to open around 2028, intended to replace the aging Nebraska State Penitentiary rather than add net new capacity.

Verify Before Acting

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