Interesting bit of information

I work for a general contractor that specializes in building detention facilities. In an effort to learn all of the little intricacies of detention facility equipment, one day at work I did an internet search for "jail locks". Imagine my surprise when the top two sites were Cannon's Great Escapes and The Joseph Fox Handcuff Collection at Handcuffs.org!

Margarette

Yes indeed.

Certainly Joe has a number of these but upon searching the Cannon's site, one can see the only model of jail or prison lock they carry, or carried, is now marked as "discontinued".

Obviously the search engine is hitting upon a now defunct product listing.

Steve Santini

I work for a general contractor that specializes in building detention facilities. In an effort to learn all of the little intricacies of detention facility equipment, one day at work I did an internet search for "jail locks". Imagine my surprise when the top two sites were Cannon's Great Escapes and The Joseph Fox Handcuff Collection at Handcuffs.org!

Margarette

If you are looking to buy jail locks, look up either IDN Hardware Sales or Clark Security Products. I think both of these companies carry FA detention locks. (I believe that FA no longer sell factory direct).

Cheers, Mike

I work for a general contractor that specializes in building detention facilities. In an effort to learn all of the little intricacies of detention facility equipment, one day at work I did an internet search for "jail locks". Imagine my surprise when the top two sites were Cannon's Great Escapes and The Joseph Fox Handcuff Collection at Handcuffs.org!

Margarette

Hi Margarette, Joe has a great collection and the Cannon's do still carry the Folger Adams locks.

Thanks for drawing attention to the discontinued notice. I was aware that there was a brief time late last year when these were not available and that the update of that may have been over looked during the hectic Christmas period.

I will drop them an email.

thanks

Ian

I work for a general contractor that specializes in building detention facilities. In an effort to learn all of the little intricacies of detention facility equipment, one day at work I did an internet search for "jail locks". Imagine my surprise when the top two sites were Cannon's Great Escapes and The Joseph Fox Handcuff Collection at Handcuffs.org!

Margarette

I'm not actually looking to purchase any of these locks. However, since I'm being "groomed" to be part of the work session group that puts together bids for these detention facilities, I thought it would help if I could learn about all the different types of security items...locks, ceiling material, bathroom facilities, etc. This way, if a member of the public were to ask me "Well, what type of locks will you be using on the cells?" I'll be able to give them more information that just, "Oh, there are companies out there that will be handling that..." There is more to building a jail than meets the eye!

It was a bit funny...I had already known about Folger Adams from both my escape stuff and my locksmithing stuff. My boss was in going over some plans with me, and I was asking a lot of questions. When we got to the actual detention cells, he talked of "these heavy duty locks" that they use, and I piped in "Oh, something like a Folger-Adams lock." The look on his face matched his question..."How did you know that?" I reminded him that on my resume it stated that I'm a graduate of a locksmithing course. I saved the escape related stuff for another conversation.

Margarette

I work for a general contractor that specializes in building detention facilities. In an effort to learn all of the little intricacies of detention facility equipment, one day at work I did an internet search for "jail locks". Imagine my surprise when the top two sites were Cannon's Great Escapes and The Joseph Fox Handcuff Collection at Handcuffs.org!

Margarette

Margarette, I went through a week long course at Folger Adam some years back. I have a couple of good size binders with just about everything they had published on their products up to that time (lever locks, mougal locks-level 1&3, slider doors, slammers, arromry doors, pnumatic systems, motor driven doors, electric strikes, keeper sensors, hinges, you name it). I had planned to corner the market on detention locks in my area, but I never persued it.

These binders are up for sale or trade if you are interested. I have them locked in one of my safes and I have not pulled them out for years....I can pull them out and see what all I have and send you a picture if you want. E-mail me for more info. (mindhunter42 at hotmail dot com)

Cheers, Mike

I work for a general contractor that specializes in building detention facilities. In an effort to learn all of the little intricacies of detention facility equipment, one day at work I did an internet search for "jail locks". Imagine my surprise when the top two sites were Cannon's Great Escapes and The Joseph Fox Handcuff Collection at Handcuffs.org!

Margarette

Hi Margarette,
You should check with your supplier and ask them to get you a Folger Adam Detention Equipment Catalog. It contains lots of information about their jail locks and such and has sections that cover bedding, plumbing fixtures, shatterproof mirrors, lighting, and all the other furnishings that would make a well deserved "guest" of the county feel right at home.
It should be very easy for you to obtain. Best of all, they are free. If you encounter any problems, let me know. I will make sure you get one.
This will give you hours of fine reading and will impress your boss. So much so, that when you ask for time off during the next convention, he will certainly oblige.

mark
O--O

I work for a general contractor that specializes in building detention facilities. In an effort to learn all of the little intricacies of detention facility equipment, one day at work I did an internet search for "jail locks". Imagine my surprise when the top two sites were Cannon's Great Escapes and The Joseph Fox Handcuff Collection at Handcuffs.org!

Margarette

Oops......Amazing Michael and I both offered detention calalogs at almost the same time. I did not want to bust his sale or trade with you, but he may have some older out of print and therefore hard to find cataloges. I was refering to the company's most recent publication and they give them away.

mark
O--O

I work for a general contractor that specializes in building detention facilities. In an effort to learn all of the little intricacies of detention facility equipment, one day at work I did an internet search for "jail locks". Imagine my surprise when the top two sites were Cannon's Great Escapes and The Joseph Fox Handcuff Collection at Handcuffs.org!

Margarette

I've long thought the best way to test the adequacy of anything in a jail is to sit back and let the prisoners have at it.

Thirty-something years ago, Dallas County, Texas built a new state-of-the art jail. Not too long after the first residents arrived, some guy figured out how to defeat the jail lock using nothing more than a 19 cent Bic ballpoint pen.

A rather large number of prisoners suddenly developed an urge to write letters and there was a run on the commissary for Bic pens. Because the commissary was staffed with civilians, they didn't say anything to the sheriff's department and over the next few days, some forty or fifty guys released themselves on their own recognizance.

I don't recall who the lock manufacturer was, but all the locks were retrofitted. And, prisoners were no longer allowed the option of wearing street clothes their relatives brought them.

What I've found interesting in detention facility construction are all the special fasteners (nuts, bolts, screws) that get used.

I work for a general contractor that specializes in building detention facilities. In an effort to learn all of the little intricacies of detention facility equipment, one day at work I did an internet search for "jail locks". Imagine my surprise when the top two sites were Cannon's Great Escapes and The Joseph Fox Handcuff Collection at Handcuffs.org!

Margarette

Mark, the binders I was offering are not catalogs. They have isometric (exploded view) drawings in them of pretty much every type of lock and locking device that FA was making at the time along with a bunch of hush-hush material (I don't feel a need to store "catalogs" in my safe). As far as I know, FA doesn't give this stuff away free. You have to have completed FA's trainning progran in order to get them, or at least you did back when I got mine. And for the record, flying out to Lemont, Ill and staying there for a week, on top of what FA charged me, wasn't free.....it was very, very expensive.

Cheers, Mike

I work for a general contractor that specializes in building detention facilities. In an effort to learn all of the little intricacies of detention facility equipment, one day at work I did an internet search for "jail locks". Imagine my surprise when the top two sites were Cannon's Great Escapes and The Joseph Fox Handcuff Collection at Handcuffs.org!

Margarette

BFW: You might be thinking of standard key handcuffs that could be opened with the cartridge from a bic pen. I doubt that a jail lock could be opened using one.

I work for a general contractor that specializes in building detention facilities. In an effort to learn all of the little intricacies of detention facility equipment, one day at work I did an internet search for "jail locks". Imagine my surprise when the top two sites were Cannon's Great Escapes and The Joseph Fox Handcuff Collection at Handcuffs.org!

Margarette

What about Southern Steel at http://www.southernsteel.com/, I know those products are used alot. I know the Federal Bureau of Prisons has alot of specifications and list of vendors that are approved. And if by chance, what is the spacing between the bars. I once knew it from a friend of mine that had worked for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

-Dorson

I work for a general contractor that specializes in building detention facilities. In an effort to learn all of the little intricacies of detention facility equipment, one day at work I did an internet search for "jail locks". Imagine my surprise when the top two sites were Cannon's Great Escapes and The Joseph Fox Handcuff Collection at Handcuffs.org!

Margarette

Hi,
I agree with Stan that the Bic pen had to be used on handcuffs and not jail locks. I would just love to hear about an escape from a jail cell by using a pen.
One of the coolest things that I have ever seen is a contraband handcuff key that is now displayed at one of our jails. It was made by carving or whittling from a toothbrush handle. Not only does it function as well as a real key but artistically it is gorgeous. It is perfect and I doubt that any cuff manufacturer could come up with a nicer one.

mark
O--O

I work for a general contractor that specializes in building detention facilities. In an effort to learn all of the little intricacies of detention facility equipment, one day at work I did an internet search for "jail locks". Imagine my surprise when the top two sites were Cannon's Great Escapes and The Joseph Fox Handcuff Collection at Handcuffs.org!

Margarette

I met a guy who was/is a guard for the military side of Levenworth Federal Prison. He told me that they have to keep key covers on all of their FA keys because some of these guys could make a "make-shift key" if they were to see the key profile and the bitting. He said that one prisoner claimed this very thing to him and he and a couple of other guards made this guy a bet. He gave the guy a quick look at the blade of the key to his food passage door on his cell and came back the next day. He told me that the guy had a key cut out of soap, or a like substance, and it was hardened like moulded plastic. They all got together and slid the key into the lock, which by his account, slid in like a real thing. He slowly turned the "key", carful not to break it off in the lock, and CA-CLICK!!! It worked!!! This guy told me all of their jaws hit the floor when the lock bolt retracted! They gave the guy what ever was owed to him (I don't remember what the item was) and they never let ANY prisioner see their keys again for any reason.

True? I don't know, but I do know that prisoners are the most resourcful group of people that I have ever seen. And I have heard many more stories from prison guards and others that just blew my mind. Like the one about the computer hacker who was locked up in isolation during his entire sentence and never once allowed phone privleges because it was deemed that he was so smart that he could start a nucular war with simple phone access. Urban legend or not???? I, for one, do not want to go to prison to find out!

Cheers, Mike

I work for a general contractor that specializes in building detention facilities. In an effort to learn all of the little intricacies of detention facility equipment, one day at work I did an internet search for "jail locks". Imagine my surprise when the top two sites were Cannon's Great Escapes and The Joseph Fox Handcuff Collection at Handcuffs.org!

Margarette

Stan: It was indeed the passage locks, not handcuffs.

For this to make sense, there's a jusrisdictional item in the background, at least in Texas.

Any "peace officer" may arrest anyone for any violation of any law, municipal, state or federal. Once taken into custody, the person must then be transferred to the authority having jusridiction over that offense for prosecution.

By way of example, as a municipal (city) cop, let's say I arrest a burglar. Theft is a state offense, so I have to hand the fellow off to a state official, which in Texas is the county sheriff in which county the purported violation occurred. By the same token, if a deputy sheriff were to arrest someone for a traffic violation in the city, he'd have to turn him over to the city for detention and prosecution.

Okay, once I've handed off the prisoner to the appropriate authority, I've done my job, and that is not a "cop-out". Even if I know that the county jail is being guarded by Barney Fife, and they throw the ax-killer I arrested into a cell next to Otis the Town Drunk, with a key to his cell and all the others, neither I, nor my captain, has any control over that situation.

It was not a happy situation when it happened. We'd arrested all of those folks. We had turned them over to the county, as required by law. They got loose. And guess who had to go find them? Thankfully, at the time, none of them were high risk.


I'm no poet, but there was something we learned a long time ago:

"I don't get to run the train, I can't even ring the bell,
But let that ba***rd get out of jail and see who catches hell."

I work for a general contractor that specializes in building detention facilities. In an effort to learn all of the little intricacies of detention facility equipment, one day at work I did an internet search for "jail locks". Imagine my surprise when the top two sites were Cannon's Great Escapes and The Joseph Fox Handcuff Collection at Handcuffs.org!

Margarette

We do have lists of approved vendors for items used in detention facility construction...if they ain't on the list, they can't supply specialty materials for the job, including furniture for the offices. It's actually rather interesting...not many people realize just what all goes into the construction of a detention facility. For obvious reasons, I can't go into details, but those reasons are why it's a specialty construction. After I began work for this company, I was told a story about a detention facility that was built, and the county used a general contractor that was not familiar with the intricacies of detention facility construction. As a result, within a week of the facility's opening, detainees were releasing themselves. Now that they want to expand, guess who the county is calling?

Margarette