Medical & Mental Health Care in Nevada (NDOC)

Key info

Care starts with a health-care request. An incarcerated person requests medical, dental, or mental-health care by submitting the institution’s sick-call / medical kite (health-request form). Non-emergency requests are seen at a scheduled sick call.

Care is provided in-house. NDOC delivers health care through its own Medical Division — clinics and infirmaries at each institution — not through a single statewide private medical contractor.

A co-pay applies. NDOC charges an inmate medical co-pay for non-emergency visits, reported as among the highest in the country. Confirm the current amount with the institution or NDOC.

The Regional Medical Facility is the main medical hub. In-patient medical care, mental-health care, and hospice are centered at the Regional Medical Facility (RMF) at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City.

Health care in Nevada prisons is run in-house by NDOC’s Medical Division, which is responsible for medical, dental, mental-health, and pharmacy services across the system. Care begins with a health-care request submitted by the incarcerated person; routine requests are handled through sick call at the institution, and more complex care is provided at NDOC clinics, infirmaries, or the system’s central medical facility. The details below are general; each institution sets its own sick-call schedule and procedures.

Requesting medical, dental, and mental-health care

An incarcerated person initiates care by submitting the institution’s health-care request — commonly called a medical kite or sick-call request. The request is reviewed by clinic staff, and a non-emergency matter is scheduled for a sick call appointment. Dental care is requested the same way. Mental-health care is also provided in-house and is requested through the same health-request process; mental-health staff are part of the Medical Division.

Emergencies are handled by institution staff at the time and do not require a sick-call request first. A family member who is concerned about an incarcerated person’s health generally cannot obtain medical information directly because of medical-privacy rules, but can raise an urgent concern with the institution or with NDOC.

Cost: the medical co-pay

NDOC charges an inmate medical co-pay for non-emergency health-care visits, deducted from the incarcerated person’s account. The co-pay has been reported as among the highest charged by any state prison system. NDOC policy provides that a person is not denied medically necessary care for inability to pay, and certain encounters — such as staff-initiated visits, follow-ups, chronic-care appointments, and some emergency or mandated services — are generally not charged. Because the charged amount and the list of exempt services can change, confirm the current co-pay and what it applies to with the institution or NDOC rather than relying on a figure published elsewhere.

How care is organized

Health care is delivered in-house by the NDOC Medical Division, administered by a Medical Director and Medical Administrator who set medical, dental, mental-health, and pharmacy policy department-wide. Nevada does not contract its prison health care to a single statewide private medical company; clinics and infirmaries operate at the institutions.

The system’s central medical hub is the Regional Medical Facility (RMF) at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center (NNCC) in Carson City. The RMF houses in-patient medical and mental-health units and a hospice program for end-of-life care, and NNCC operates additional units — such as a Medical Intermediate Care unit and a Structured Care Unit — for people whose medical or mental-health condition is stable but needs added monitoring. A person who needs care beyond what an institution can provide may be transferred to the RMF or, when necessary, to an outside hospital.

Raising a problem

A concern about medical or mental-health care is raised through the NDOC inmate grievance process, which moves through staged levels of review within the department. Grievances are filed by the incarcerated person.

Outside the grievance process, the NDOC Office of the Inspector General (OIG) conducts criminal investigations involving the department, its facilities, and people in its custody, and oversees the department’s compliance with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA); the OIG is an internal investigative office, not a general complaint line for care quality.

Nevada law has also provided for an independent prison ombudsman — created by the Legislature to operate independent of NDOC, under the administration of the Attorney General, to handle grievances from incarcerated people. The operational status of that office is unclear, and standing up an independent ombudsman has been the subject of ongoing implementation; confirm whether it is currently accepting complaints before relying on it.

Verify Before Acting

Confirm details with the specific institution before relying on any plan. Care is requested through that institution’s sick-call / medical-kite process; routine requests are scheduled, while emergencies are handled at the time. Care is provided in-house by the NDOC Medical Division (no single statewide private contractor), with in-patient medical, mental-health, and hospice care centered at the Regional Medical Facility at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City. A medical co-pay applies to non-emergency visits — confirm the current amount and which visits are exempt rather than relying on a figure published elsewhere. Concerns are raised through the NDOC grievance process; the Office of the Inspector General is an internal investigative office and PREA overseer, and a legislatively created independent ombudsman under the Attorney General exists in law but its operational status is unclear — confirm whether it is accepting complaints. Medical-privacy rules limit what a family member can be told directly.

Sources

This page is compiled from the following publicly available sources. Policies change without notice — confirm current details with the facility before relying on them.