How to Contact an Inmate at Churchill Detention Facility, NV (NV)

At Churchill Detention Facility, newly booked inmates are locked down in their cells for the first 48 hours. During that intake period, they only get one hour per day for phone calls. So if you're having trouble getting through right away, that's normal.

Once the first 48 hours pass, an inmate gets placed on a "tier rotation" (either morning or evening out-of-cell time). That's when phone calls, showers, and TV happen. Here's the catch: staff will not tell callers what an inmate's tier rotation is, and they won't pass messages to inmates either.

Steps to Follow

• ✓ If your person was just booked, expect a 48-hour lockdown period with only one hour per day when they can access phone calls.
• ✓ After the first 48 hours, plan for calls to line up with either morning or evening out-of-cell time, depending on their tier rotation.
• ✓ Try reaching them during both morning and evening windows on different days, since staff will not tell you which rotation they’re on.
• ✓ Don’t rely on staff to relay a message or to notify you about schedule details, because messages are not passed to inmates and callers are not advised of tier rotations.

Since access depends on both the intake lockdown and tier rotation, it's worth calling the facility directly before you settle into a routine. Ask what the one-hour phone window looks like during the initial 48-hour lockdown, and whether it happens at a set time each day. After intake, ask how tier rotation works in practice: are rotations consistently "morning" or "evening," and how does that affect phone access alongside showers and other out-of-cell activities? Also confirm the policy on message relay and caller notifications so you know what to expect (and what not to count on).