Carpentry and Woodworking - had to break down a door, how to repair splintered wood around lock area?

I had to break down a door, and a long piece of the door frame around the lock area almost completely splintered off, as well as the part of the lock attached to the door came off (however, it seems to be reattachable--it was held in place by two screws, and I can fit the screws back into the holes in which they were. They are along the line where it started to splinter. When I try to push the piece of wood back into place, it juts out a little, probably due to errant splinters of wood in the area where it splintered off that are now sticking out and preventing it from lying flush. Should I sand this down? Would I then just glue the screws of the lock back into place, and what should I use to reattach the piece of wood? I snapped a picture of the piece of wood using my cell phone, sorry the quality is so bad.

I realize this all sounds a bit shady, but as you might be able to tell from the picture, this was just a door inside my house that I stupidly managed to lock from the inside.

http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/5954/lock.jpg

Welcome to the forums! Good job!! In all reality it will be best to purchase a new jamb set to install. I doubt you will ever get the wood to be the strength it was before you drove the truck through it ;). The jamb kits can be purchased at big box stores and at most lumber yards. Since you have surgically removed the interior case molding, it will have to be replaced as well. Let us know if you plan on doing this and we can help if you get stumped.
I know it is ex post facto, but I guess you realize a locksmith would have cost alot less, right?

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately, I'm a bit hard up for cash right now, and getting it back to its original strength isn't my main intent--I more just need to make it so the lock works again. It wouldn't be possible to use wood putty/wood glue and just fill in cracks and everything? Thanks again!

You could always try screws and glue. Use the screws to hold the wood in place while teh glue sets up. Drill pilot holes for the screws. Counter sink them and you can top off with wood putty. Sand smooth and paint. Whole lot of work, but doable.

Then again if you have some basic hand tools, basic wood working skills, and time you can build a new door jamb from a piece of 1x lumber.

Note it is the hinge side that is broken, not the latch side. Aligning the door may be a bit tricky, since it won't have alot to hang from. Be sure to attach your hinges with 3" screws so they go through the casing and into the framing member behind it. That will give strength, then the wood patch is cosmetic.

I have to deal with this in college rentals when college kids leave key home when out to the bar and kick the door in.

It helps to have a general repair skills history, as lots of this type of ad-lib work is merely common sense thinking. For example, if you have splintered wood that mysteriously will not fit back into the jigsaw puzzle of pieces - often it is because you have to slip the pieces back, in the correct order, under some pinched wood. Sometimes you simply have to spread open the crack some and reinsert. Othertimes you might have to clip off some straggling and/or misshapen, crushed strands that are beyond repair, and slip in the bulk of the remainder. Glue, drill, countersink drilling, screwing has already been mentioned. Sometimes only skinny trim nails are all that are needed along with the glue.

If the jamb is painted, you can always get these to look brand new again by these methods along with filler afterwards - and a repaint.

If oak (any unpainted wood), you likely will never make an entirely invisible repair.

If you have a steel door that gets dented, body filler or simply glazing putty (applied with any number of recoats as needed to build it up) will level it out prior to repainting, to where you will never know the door ever had a dent! I have some that have looked like it was riddled with hail and/or crease-dents, and now the doors look brand new. And the repair fill sessions (for each coat procedure) only take minutes each time. (Driving to the address takes the longest!)

This is all pretty elementary stuff, actually, in the general scheme of many other type repairs one has to make - that just takes a little thinking, when you have in your possession hand tools, fasteners, glue, filler and such stuff.