Nevada Prisons | DOC | Prison Inmate Search

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Nevada Department of Correction - Prisons & Inmate Search

Nevada State Prisons and Juvenile Facilities

Nevada locked up its first prisoners before it was even a state. In 1862 the Territorial Legislature leased the Warm Springs Hotel east of Carson City and turned it into a prison, with the property’s owner, Abraham Curry, as its first warden. That site became the Nevada State Prison, the state’s only lockup for about a century, until it closed on May 18, 2012. Today the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC), once known as the Nevada Department of Prisons, runs the system from Carson City under the oversight of the Board of Prison Commissioners: the governor, secretary of state and attorney general.

How big is Nevada’s prison system?

NDOC held an average of about 10,500 people in the first half of fiscal year 2025, roughly 9,600 men and 880 women, and the state projects slow growth toward 11,000 by 2027. The system has room for about 12,700, so overall bed space isn’t the main problem. Staffing is. A June 2025 outside study described a “staffing crisis” that leads to frequent lockdowns, limited phone calls and recreation, and shifts with no supervisor on duty. The department spent more than $18 million on overtime in just three months of 2025. A record 76 people died in Nevada prisons in 2025, more than half from medical problems, and lawsuits over delayed care continue.

The state runs six prisons, along with conservation camps and two transitional housing centers:

High Desert State Prison, Indian Springs (the largest; maximum security since 2024; men’s death row)
Ely State Prison, Ely (now medium security; site of the execution chamber)
Southern Desert Correctional Center, Indian Springs
Northern Nevada Correctional Center, Carson City (intake and regional medical center)
Lovelock Correctional Center, Lovelock
Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Center, North Las Vegas (women’s prison and women’s death row)
Conservation camps at Stewart, Three Lakes Valley, Jean, Pioche, Wells and Carlin, where minimum-security crews help fight wildfires
Transitional housing at Casa Grande in Las Vegas and Northern Nevada Transitional Housing in Reno

In September 2024 NDOC swapped the roles of its two toughest prisons. Nearly 2,000 people were moved so the highest-risk prisoners could go from remote Ely to High Desert, which is newer, better staffed and closer to hospitals. A fight at Ely that left three men dead had come just before the move. Warm Springs Correctional Center in Carson City closed in late 2022 to save about $14 million a year, and several fire camps, including Tonopah, Ely and Humboldt, have also shut down as fewer people qualify for them.

Where do new prisoners go first?

After sentencing, people move from county jail into NDOC intake. In the north, men are processed at Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City. Men sentenced in southern Nevada go through intake at High Desert, and women are received at Florence McClure in North Las Vegas. During intake staff complete medical and mental health exams and a classification review before assigning a permanent prison.

Looking up someone in a Nevada prison

Search by name or NDOC ID number with the department’s NDOC Offender Search. The result shows the person’s current institution. Use the ID number on every letter and money transfer.

The death penalty in Nevada

Nevada keeps the death penalty but hasn’t used it in two decades. The last execution was Daryl Mack, a volunteer who dropped his appeals, on April 26, 2006. Nevada has carried out 12 executions since 1976 and 61 before that. In 1924 it became the first state to execute someone with lethal gas, when Gee Jon died in the chamber at Carson City; the state used gas until 1979 and lethal injection since. A planned 2021 execution of Zane Floyd collapsed after a drugmaker objected to the state’s untested drug mix and the state’s ketamine supply expired in February 2022. The Death Penalty Information Center counts 57 people on death row. Men have been held at High Desert since September 2024, women at Florence McClure, and the execution chamber built in 2016 is at Ely.

Nevada’s state youth centers

Juvenile courts commit teens to Juvenile Justice Services, part of the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services. The state runs three youth centers:

Caliente Youth Center, Caliente, with separate units for girls and boys
Nevada Youth Training Center, Elko, for boys
Summit View Youth Center, Las Vegas, for boys

Together they held about 111 young people in late October 2025. Before a case is decided, youth are held in county juvenile detention centers such as those in Clark and Washoe counties. Because juvenile records are confidential, families should call Juvenile Justice Services or the youth’s caseworker for information.

To search for an inmate or juvenile, or to learn how to visit, call, write or send money to someone in the Nevada Department of Corrections or Division of Child and Family Services Juvenile Justice Services, choose a facility from the list below.