How families can get official updates about the Franklin County prison project
Want updates straight from the Arkansas Department of Correction (DOC)? Start with the DOC website's Friends & Family area, where you can sign up to receive updates and alerts. For news specific to the Franklin County project, bookmark the DOC's Franklin County Project page. That's where official announcements get posted - and it's your best bet for separating confirmed information from rumors.
Early updates tend to be big-picture milestones showing the project moving through planning and preconstruction. On the Franklin County Project page, DOC has posted items like the land purchase for the site and major selection decisions. You'll also see process updates tied to formal procurement steps - things like Request for Qualifications (RFQ) results and contractor selections. These are official, dated snapshots of where the project stands. They won't change anything for families day-to-day just yet, but they're useful for tracking progress.
Note: Early updates are usually milestone announcements - land/site steps, RFQ outcomes, and contractor selections - rather than day-to-day operational details.
Practical
- ✓ Use the DOC Friends & Family option to sign up to receive updates and alerts
- ✓ Bookmark the Franklin County Project page so you can find official announcements quickly
- ✓ Check the project page before you plan travel, especially if you’re trying to time a trip around project news
Hearing conflicting stories about what's happening? The Franklin County Project page is your cleanest source of record - it's where DOC posts official announcements. A quick check there can save you a lot of secondhand confusion, especially when a headline is making the rounds but the details are still murky.
Construction news tends to come first: milestones like land purchase updates, RFQ outcomes, and contractor selections are the kinds of items DOC has already posted. These signal progress, but they don't mean the facility is close to opening or that anything operational is changing right away. Operational announcements - the stuff families usually care about most, like how the facility will run day-to-day - typically come later, after preconstruction work settles. Until then, expect the project page to read more like a timeline of planning and approvals than a guide to visiting or transfers.
Heads up: A contractor selection doesn't mean construction starts immediately. DOC has said contract negotiations follow, and there's often a gap between an announcement and visible on-site activity.
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