Owned Locks

I previously posted a question [1] over a year and a half ago (it 
doesn't seem that long)
about owned locks.
Doug Lea responded [2] saying that they were intentionally left out and 
suggested using
a ThreadLocal to track the owner of the lock and a special 
implementation of the Lock
interface which works with the ThreadLocal.
I am trying to figure out how to best leverage the current built in 
locks to achieve owned
locks. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
RZ

[1] 
http://altair.cs.oswego.edu/pipermail/concurrency-interest/2003-July/000497.html
[2] 
http://altair.cs.oswego.edu/pipermail/concurrency-interest/2003-July/000498.html