too many absurdities, contrivances

He fucked with the judge.
He killed the cellmate with a shiv not a knife.
He had cameras set up in his cave.
No one is actively looking or waiting for people to tunnel into a jail. He had ten years to do it slow and steady.
He didn't have any reason to think they were onto him. He was too cocky. Definitely his downfall.

My main problem with this movie is the ending. Jamie fox's character would never bring the bomb into the jail. He would go place it in an open field or something. If he wanted butler dead he should have just shot him . Would have been a way better ending.

They didn't disarm and re-rig it either. They just bypassed a fail-safe to see what was inside.

I can't remember much of the finer details. Only that it was bad.

7.4 on IMDB? I looked back at my score, and it was a 4/10. Which means I really disliked it, but it was competent enough in other areas to not score lower.

- Agreed, as this is a big plot hole. Clyde would have been transferred to a jailhouse for his outburst and not prison
- It was a shiv from the stake, but you are correct. They would have scanned it and probably considered it a harmful weapon in real life
- He may not have known for a fact where everyone was. He just tinkered with devices that he knew would be used by his victims. He likely did some homework on where he might have to go at times like the graveyard.
- I agree he could possibly tunnel like that into each cell, but I find it rather silly that nobody knew anything out of the ordinary. I imagine prison cells are cleaned routinely from time to time, so they should have found this.
- Yep. There would be absolutely no time to do all that in the time that he came back. Major plot hole.