“Does it really make sense to put people in Alabama when they are most likely primarily from the the west coast of the US?”
Probably - they’ll be afraid to break out, due to their prejudice against Southerns. Somewhat like the old Stalin Gulags. Some were in Siberia...they didn’t even have to bother chasing you, if you got loose, and most people there understood this.
I think that’s the logic behind Angola prison in Louisiana.