Florence, Arizona, has five prisons: two state-run complexes operated by the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (ADCRR) and three privately managed facilities. Together they hold far more people than the roughly 8,500 residents who live in the town itself, making Florence one of the most prison-dense small towns in the country.
The five facilities are Arizona State Prison Complex Eyman, Arizona State Prison Complex Florence, the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex (CoreCivic), the Central Arizona Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility (GEO Group), and Florence West Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility (GEO Group).
The Two State-Run Prisons
Arizona State Prison Complex Eyman
ASPC-Eyman is the largest and most operationally significant state facility in town. It opened on May 3, 1991, and houses roughly 4,544 male inmates across six units: Browning, Cook, Meadows, Rynning, SMU-1, and South. Security levels range from medium to maximum, with one maximum-security unit, one high-custody unit, and three medium-security sex offender units.1Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry. Eyman The Browning Unit houses Arizona’s male death row.2Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry. Browning Unit
Arizona State Prison Complex Florence
ASPC-Florence is the oldest correctional facility in the state. Inmates finished building the original prison in 1908 to replace the territorial prison in Yuma, and for most of the 20th century it served as Arizona’s primary state prison.3Wikipedia. Arizona State Prison Complex – Florence
The complex no longer holds a general inmate population. Death row has been consolidated at Eyman’s Browning Unit. The Central Unit at ASPC-Florence still contains the state execution chamber and the complex retains a role in carrying out death sentences, but day-to-day incarceration has largely moved elsewhere.3Wikipedia. Arizona State Prison Complex – Florence
The Three Private Prisons
Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex (CoreCivic)
This is the largest privately operated facility in Florence, with capacity for about 5,000 people.4Idaho Department of Correction. Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex CoreCivic has owned and operated it since 1994 as a multi-level security facility serving several government clients at once.5CoreCivic. Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex
Its customers include the U.S. Marshals Service, the Idaho Department of Corrections, the Montana Department of Corrections, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona, and the cities of Coolidge and Mesa. Idaho inmates are housed in a dedicated unit separate from other populations.5CoreCivic. Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex Note that this facility is sometimes confused with the Federal Correctional Complex in Florence, Colorado, which is an entirely different institution in a different state.
Central Arizona Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility (GEO Group)
Known as CACRF, this medium-custody private prison is run by The GEO Group. It opened in December 2006 under contract with ADCRR and holds up to 1,280 adult male inmates who need sex offender treatment.6Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry. Central Arizona Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility Unlike the CoreCivic complex, CACRF houses only state inmates referred by ADCRR for specialized programming.
Florence West Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility (GEO Group)
Florence West is a minimum-custody private prison, also run by The GEO Group. It opened in October 1997 and holds up to 750 adult male inmates under contract with ADCRR.7Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry. Florence West As a minimum-security facility, it typically holds inmates closer to release or those who have earned lower-risk classifications.
Why So Many Prisons in One Town
Florence has been a prison town since 1908, when the territorial prison relocated there from Yuma, and the state and private operators have kept building in the same area ever since. The geography helps: Florence sits in Pinal County with open desert land, far enough from the Phoenix metro area to avoid residential opposition but close enough for staffing and logistics. The town has leaned into the identity, at one point paying the Census Bureau for mid-decade population counts to capture prison-inflated numbers and secure a larger share of federal and state funding tied to census figures.
Visiting an Inmate at a Florence Prison
If you want to visit someone held in an ADCRR facility or an ADCRR-contracted private prison in Florence, the process starts the same way. You submit an “Application to Visit an Inmate” electronically through the ADCRR website, and completing it counts as your sworn statement that the information is accurate.8Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry. Visitation
- Adult visitors applying for in-person, phone, or video visits pay a one-time, non-refundable $25 background check fee. If you only want to accept phone calls from an inmate, the fee is waived, but you still complete the application.
- Fees are paid electronically through JPAY, Global Tel-Link, or Keefe, using your Application Visitor ID number.
- All supporting documents and the background check fee must reach ADCRR within 30 days of your application date, or the application won’t be processed.
- Once payment and documents are received, ADCRR has up to 60 days to process the application.
- When a decision is made, the inmate is notified. It is then the inmate’s responsibility to tell you whether the visit was approved.
Do not submit an application if the inmate is still going through intake at Alhambra or Perryville.8Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry. Visitation
For the CoreCivic facility, visitation rules may differ because its contracts run through federal agencies and out-of-state corrections departments rather than ADCRR. Contact the facility directly or ask the agency holding the inmate about its specific procedures.