Nebraska ranks near top of U.S. in prison overcrowding, OIG of Corrections reports

LINCOLN, Neb. ( Nebraska Examiner ) - 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