United States · Nevada · Indian Springs
High Desert State Prison
Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.
For families
How to send mail, money, and visit High Desert State Prison
Step-by-step guidance using the United States system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

High Desert State Prison is a state prison located in Clark County, Nevada. Rated capacity: 4,176. Reported population: 3,669. Security level: Medium. Data sourced from the HIFLD Prison Boundaries open dataset.
Background
High Desert State Prison (HDSP) is a high-security state prison that houses level IV inmates located in Leavitt in Lassen County, California. Opened in 1995, it has a capacity of 2,324 persons. As of January 31, 2023, High Desert was incarcerating people at 101.6% of its design capacity, with 2,362 occupants.https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/research/wp-content/uploads/sites/174/2023/02/Tpop1_d2301.pdf A second prison facility, the Federal Correctional Institution, Herlong, is also located within Lassen County, California.
Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.
Capacity
4,176
Current population
3,669
Occupancy
88%
Year opened
1995
Operational
Figures from official sources · verified 2 Jun 2026 · methodology
Facility profile
Operator
Nevada Department of CorrectionsPopulation held
Mixed/unknown
Opened
1995
Region
Nevada
Security level
Medium
Death-row facility
No
Conditions
No conditions summary available yet.
Visiting
No visiting information available.
Mailing
No mailing information available.
Practical info
Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.
Known issues
No major issues documented in our database.
Notable inmates
- Donny Johnson1960 · painter
Donald Clayton "Donny" Johnson (born 1960) is an American painter and convicted murderer.
Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia.
Contact & address
Conditions Risk Score
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
- Overcrowding
- 0/30
- Oversight reports
- 0/30
- Structural flags
- 0/15
- Death signals
- 0/15
- Conditions text
- 0/10
This facility scores 0. The national average across 7,437 scored United States facilities is 2 — 2 points below national average.
Related facilities
Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.
- Wasco State Prison (Wsp)WascoMediumState prison172% occupancy
- Iowa Medical & Classification CenterCoralvilleMediumState prison153% occupancy
- Correctional Training Facility (Ctf)SoledadMediumState prison150% occupancy
- North Kern State Prison (Nksp)DelanoMediumState prison167% occupancy
- Valley State Prison (Vsp)ChowchillaMediumState prison180% occupancy
- Chuckawalla Valley State Prison (Cvsp)BlytheMediumState prison162% occupancy
Compared to other facilities in United States
7436 peersData completeness
74%How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.
Sources
- HIFLD Prison Boundaries
- HIFLD dataset query
- Wikipedia — Wikimedia Foundation
- HIFLD Prison Boundaries — US Department of Homeland Security â HIFLD Open Data
- OpenStreetMap — OpenStreetMap Contributors
- California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation â Facility Locator — State of California
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation
- Wikidata (Q5755327)
- Wikipedia
- See /data-sources for our overall methodology.
Cite this page
Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.
World Prisons. (2026). High Desert State Prison. Retrieved October 20, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/high-desert-state-prison
"High Desert State Prison." World Prisons. Accessed October 20, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/high-desert-state-prison.
@misc{worldprisons-high-desert-state-prison,
author = {{World Prisons}},
title = {High Desert State Prison},
year = {2026},
url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/high-desert-state-prison},
urldate = {2026-10-20}
}