The Aging Rebel 2/4/2020
This Sunday, February 9, will probably be the last Florence Prison Run. For the last 37 years, a large pack of motorcyclist has ridden past the Arizona prison to remind the men inside that they are not forgotten and that they remain a part of a larger, defiant culture of freedom.
Cops hate it. Jay Dobyns hated it because he had to ride his motorcycle 75 miles and he hated to ride. But afterward he described it as “too cool.â€
Most participants assemble at one of five location for the pilgrimage to the prison: At Independent Motorcycles on Chandler Boulevard in Chandler; the Hells Angels clubhouse on 12th Avenue in Tucson; the Clubhouse on West Mojave in Cave Creek and the Steel Horse Saloon in a shoppin center on Bell Road and Phoenix; and at Chilleens On 17 in Black Canyon City. If you don’t want to ride in a pack you can go straight to the Charles Witlow Rodeo Grounds which is four miles south of Florence.
The ride is probably about to end because Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced in the middle of January that he intends to close the prison. He’s wanted to do it for years. Nobody seems to know where the prisoners will go but the Governor is likely to do it anyway. He is that kind of Governor.
Mustangs And WineFlorence was opened in 1908, four years before Arizona became a state, as a replacement for the Yuma Territorial Prison. Prisoners who lived in tents built it and after its completion the prisoners supplied a cheap source of labor. Prisoners from Florence, for example, built the mountain road from Tombstone to Bisbee in 1913. It includes six segregated housing units and can house about 4,ooo prisoners. The state hung men there until 1933. It still has a 100-cell death row although the last time Arizona executed a prisoner was in 1995.
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