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Nelson County Jail
County jailOvercrowded (117%)LowHigh
Verified
Fresh · 2mo 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Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date.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.
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
Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.
- Southwest Virginia Regional Jail - TazewellTazewellMaximumCounty jail330% occupancy
- Stevens County Jail / CourthouseColvilleCounty jail259% occupancy
- Noble County JailCaldwellCounty jail542% occupancy
- Gallia County JailGallipolisCounty jail336% occupancy
- Stark County JailToulonCounty jail3446% occupancy
- Franklin County Detention FacilitySt. AlbansMaximumCounty jail660% occupancy
Compared to other facilities in United States
7436 peersOccupancythis: 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
- HIFLD Prison Boundaries
- HIFLD dataset query
- Wikipedia — Wikimedia Foundation
- HIFLD Prison Boundaries — US Department of Homeland Security â HIFLD Open Data
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation
- Wikidata (Q6990445)
- 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.
APA
World Prisons. (2026). Nelson County Jail. Retrieved July 21, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/nelson-county-jail
Chicago
"Nelson County Jail." World Prisons. Accessed July 21, 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 = {2026-07-21}
}