| Prison Name: | Arizona State Prison Complex – Florence |
| Location: | Florence, Arizona |
| Coordinates: | 33.027°N -111.37°W |
| Status: | open |
| Pushpin Map: | USA Arizona |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Arizona |
| Classification: | mixed |
| Capacity: | Closed except for units transferred under other ASPC complexes (Gov Doug Ducey ordered shut down due to massive costs to operate in 2020) |
| Opened: | 1908 |
| Closed: | 2022 |
| Managed By: | Arizona Department of Corrections |
Arizona State Prison Complex – Florence also known as Florence State Prison (FSP) is a former facility operated by the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC). The main FSP prison was located in Florence, Arizona. The Florence complex used to include a unit in Picacho in unincorporated Pinal County however, the Picacho Unit was closed and destroyed in early 2013. The Globe Unit in Globe is now part of ASPC-Phoenix.[1]
The Central Unit of ASPC–Florence housed Arizona's one of two male death row cell blocks (the other at Eyman where they were both consolidated when ASPC-Florence closed down) and the State of Arizona execution chamber.[2] FSP is the judicial site in Arizona for state executions since 1910. The death house known on the Unit as Housing Unit 9 is located beside Housing Unit 8. Lethal injection and the gas chamber are the sole methods of execution.
In 1908 inmates finished building and opened the Arizona Prison at Florence. This new prison was to replace the territorial prison in Yuma. The convicts lived in tents while constructing the prison. The new prison featured a death chamber. The chamber was scaffolding above the death row cells that had a trap door for hanging inmates which opened to a room below. In 1934, hanging was replaced with the gas chamber following a botched hanging that took place in 1930. Convicts from Florence were a cheap source of labor and the state used them to build roads through the mountains between Bisbee and Tombstone in 1913. Convicts also built a bridge over the San Pedro River and improved the Douglas Highway. There is a concrete monument there commemorating the completion of the road.
The prison was designed in a mission-revival style architecture.[3]
FSP had an inmate capacity of 3,946 in 6 housing units, housed at level 2, 3 and 5 security levels. The ADC uses a score classification system to assess inmates appropriate custody and security level placement. The scores range from 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest risk or need.
Central Unit was recently changed from a split 3/5 level to a sole maximum security unit.
| ASPC Unit | Custody Level |
|---|---|
| Central Unit | 5 |
| East Unit | 3 |
| North Unit | 2 |
| South Unit (now part of ASPC-Eyman) | 2 |
| CB–Kasson | 5 |
| Globe | 2 |
| Tempe St. Lukes | 2–5 |
. Crossing The Yard. Richard Shelton (writer) . 2007 . University of Arizona Press. 978-0-8165-2594-2 . registration. crossing the yard..