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United States · Kentucky · Bardstown

Nelson County Jail

County jailOvercrowded (117%)LowHigh
Verified
Aging · 5mo ago
Sources last reviewed on

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date.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 Nelson County Jail

Step-by-step guidance using the United States system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

Open toolkit
Photograph of Nelson County Jail

Nelson County Jail is a county jail located in Nelson County, Kentucky. Rated capacity: 102. Reported population: 119. Data sourced from the HIFLD Prison Boundaries open dataset.

Background

The historic Nelson County Jail in the Bardstown Historic District in Bardstown, Kentucky is a property on the National Register of Historic Places. It is next door to the Old Talbott Tavern.The property served as Nelson County, Kentucky's jail from 1797 to 1987. The old jail was originally built in 1819.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

102

Current population

119

Occupancy

117%

Year opened

—

Operational

Figures from official sources · verified 2 Jun 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

—

Region

Kentucky

Security level

—

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.

Contact & address

810 W Stephen Foster Ave, Bardstown 40004

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

5/100
Low concern5/100
Overcrowding
5/30
Oversight reports
0/30
Structural flags
0/15
Death signals
0/15
Conditions text
0/10

What the score is responding to:

  • · Operating at 117% of design capacity

This facility scores 5. The national average across 7,437 scored United States facilities is 2 — 3 points above national average.

Related facilities

All in United States →

Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.

Compared to other facilities in United States

7436 peers
Occupancythis: 117% · peers avg: 93% (+26%)
Capacity (beds)this: 102 · peers avg: 547 (81%)

Data completeness

62%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). Nelson County Jail. Retrieved October 27, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/nelson-county-jail
Chicago
"Nelson County Jail." World Prisons. Accessed October 27, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/nelson-county-jail.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-nelson-county-jail,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Nelson County Jail},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/nelson-county-jail},
  urldate = {2026-10-27}
}