Where to start

So i've been interested in trying Judo for some time. I'm currently taking Aikido here in my home town in the state of Nebraska. The unfortunate problem, is that all the schools around here focus on Judo for competition.

To be clear, I have no interest in competition. I'm interested in self-defense only.

I tried to visit one the of the Judo schools here in town, which was scary. People were getting hurt left and right during the randori section, which scared the hell out of me. And the instructor was on his phone most of the time. Basically I left with bad feeling about judo altogether. While I have talked with many schools in town, almost all of them focus on competition.

I was wondering if private Judo lessons would be a good option for me? Randori scares the crap out of me. And I'd hate to get in there and get hurt because they can beat up on the new person. How does one start in Judo? Or for that matter, how does one go about seeking private lessons for Judo?

I think you've identified a real problem with much of today's judo. Is it a college town?

Assuming you've exhausted the local club scene, perhaps you could find someone technically competent to give you some lessons as an introduction.

One real obstacle is that one truly valuable aspect of judo is struggling against a number of fully resisting, ever changing opponents. If you're only working with one opponent, you'll not experience that.

Some, perhaps many of the injuries you see may be the result of uke not wanting to 'lose'. Stiff arming, blocking entry, not taking the fall when its obvious you should, all contribute to bad falls and bad judo. C'est la guerre in modern sports judo way too often. But once you know how to fall you can protect yourself from much of that.

NBK your comments are spot on. Randori seems to be a thing of the past in a lot of Judo clubs. They say " let's randori " and then fight tooth and nail to avoid getting thrown.
I firmly believe that judoka competent in ukemi are good at randori.
Perhaps more training in ukemi is part of the answer.
Another problem is that instructors focus too much on competition. No idea how to fix that.
Another problem is the ego of people new to Judo. No idea how to fix that either.

Well let me start off by saying don’t bother. I love judo, I think it’s competionion focus is damaging it, but you will get nothing out of training judo(in the way of self defense if you won’t spar, just like you’re not going to get anything practical out of aikido. I’m certain you’re overstating the injuries you witness, further judo does not require constant supervision, if the judoka are trained to practice safely, as I’m sure they are, then the sensei doesn’t even need to be there. Now, whether your a man or a woman, you need to man up, and do these three things 1be ok with sparring, competitive sparring (trying to throw and resisting) is the only way to learn to use techniques in self defense situations. 2if you sign up for judo, decline doing randori until you are good at judo break falls, have your sensei judge your technique 3 when you do spar, and you must, ask the judoka your sparring with to practice gently at perhaps 20% effort. I’m an 18 year old man, when I’m sparring with men my age we go hard, when I spar with older gentlemen I take it easy, not all people know to do this but 99% will do it if you ask, if they don’t, don’t randori with them, no one can or will make you spar.