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I have always had a question about prison cell locks, so maybe you can answer it. Well, 2 questions actually.
1. Can the keys to the cell doors be copied? (I’m referring to the cell doors in smaller jails that still use the old style keys.
2. In today’s prisons, what company manufactures the electronic locks?
If you're talking about the paracentric keys(see image) you theoretically could, if you had a blank(like the image below).
It would be tedious to do by hand, but hey, inmates have fashioned this type of keys out of soap, even plastic. We used a
key cutter, and a pristine, unused copy of the key as a guide.
Most detentions electric locksets are made by Southern Folgers, the same company that refurb'd the housing unit hardware at Alcatraz. Southern Steel and Folger Adams merged a few years ago. I always thought Folger Adams made a better product, and considered Southern Steel's products to be more of the copycat variety, making slight variations on the FA design to circumvent the patent rights.
There are other manufacturers making detention locks and hardware, Assa Abloy, Schlage,Sargent etc. Medeco makes high security lock cylinders that are quite sophisticated, and hard to compromise, I attended a training seminar with Medeco years back, held at the Disneyland Hotel, in Anaheim,Ca. They take great steps to insure their reputation, I maintained a detailed log of parts ordered, which key matrix pinnings we did, how many, when, etc.
