Viking:  The Arizona and Colorado private prisons were at the tail-end of our out-of-state-placement.  They were contracted, because they were cheaper, and partly because of the gang influence on Alaska's prisoners in the earlier placements.  McNeil Island, Lompoc, Pelican Bay, Black Canyon ... were all saturated with gangs.  Minnesota had Eastern crime family members.  The several Federal prisons had Mafia and other organized crime syndicate members.  But even Red Rock, AZ had California and Hawaiian prisoners alongside Alaskans.  The Pacific origin gangs came in through mostly their family members who had enlisted in the US military, or were immigrants.  But the majority of the others were introduced via Alaska's prisoners.  Not only did several of Anchorage's mayors instruct the justice dept. to not acknowledge the true extent of the gangs, but also to deny that the out-of-state- placements were of significant influence.  Google "Prison gangs recruiting on Anchorage streets".