Florence, Arizona is a gently observed documentary that lets its larger themes develop organically through listening to the diverse residents of its namesake town. Florence is notable for its enormous prison population, which makes up a rarely seen, if often felt, majority of the population. Many townspeople have some slight misgivings about the prisons’ huge presence in the town, but in general it’s a sacrosanct fact of life, employing many of the town’s residents and providing most of their municipal revenue.

People psychologically deal with the prisons in different ways, a divide perfectly exemplified by the town’s two mayoral candidates. One is a former prison guard who proudly cultivates his old-school cowboy persona, along with a tough-on-crime attitude. The other candidate is seen in the opening scenes fretting about the effect of the incarcerated souls on her aura and seems to feel empathy for the prisoners, but as a mayoral candidate her only plan for progressive reform of the prisons is a beautification initiative.

Another interesting perspective is the town’s colorful barber, a lifelong resident of Florence and also an ex-inmate. He’s circumspect and reflective of his own past behavior, but doesn’t hesitate to criticize the macroscopic effects the prisons, especially private prisons, have on our society. He also reminisces about decades past in Florence, when prisons were still a fact of life, but the inmates were somewhat integrated into the community, participating in events and playing baseball against local youth, instead of locked away out of sight and out of mind.

Our country’s growing prison-industrial complex is an ethically troubling phenomenon, that’s proved so profitable that it’s unlikely to go away anytime soon. Florence, Arizona goes to ground zero of the prison industry to let the people for whom this is a fact of life speak for themselves their mixed feelings about the town’s claim to fame. The film is short and neither digs too deeply, nor approaches the issue with a clear agenda, but provides an intriguing portrait of the contradictions and economic realities of the new west.