Prior to statehood, the Federal Bureau of Prisons had correctional jurisdiction over Alaska.

These statistics left Alaska ranking #2 among states in percentage of its inmates in private prisons, and unlike New Mexico, the leader, many of the Alaskans were detainees awaiting trial.

[4] By 2009 Alaska had moved these prisoners from Florence to CCA's Red Rock Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona, and were moving them again, to the Hudson Correctional Facility in Hudson, Colorado, then under contract with prison operator Cornell Companies.

[5] The opening of the new $240 million Goose Creek Correctional Center in July 2012 allowed the state to bring those prisoners back to Alaska.

Since the establishment of the Alaska Department of Corrections, 1 officer has died in the line of duty.