Thanks!   There's probably a whole series of posts to be made in what I missed! lol.  The Alaska thing is interesting -- Hawaii, too.  I'm assuming for Hawaii, the real-estate is probably a factor, I don't know about Alaska -- is it heating?  shipping in provisions?  In any case, Arizona has been out front in allowing private prisons.  Someone in the dKos thread mentioned Louisiana had the state have to take over the private ones there, so that's something else that bears looking into.  

btw, the growth and gdp stuff was sarcasm.

Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes