Edward Winter has a piece about the topic title: 'Chess Behind Bars' concerning Jim Phelan.
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/phelan.html
The link mentions a brief chapter on chess at Parkhurst from
The Chess Player’s Bedside Book by R. Bott and S. Morrison
which per chance I only finished re-reading a few days ago when
hastily grabbing a bus-book for something to read.
Did a few stretches in the Army nick during my 9 years.
A couple of 10 days and a 21 days. AWOL and once for fighting and disturbing
the peace in Germany (that was in the wake of 3-2 1970 World Cup loss v
West Germany. Me and some mates got drunk and smashed things up in a German bar.)
They let me have a chess set, I heard one officer say:
"it's the only thing that appears to keep him out of trouble."
Me, a chess set and Clarke's book on Tal for 21 uninterrupted days. Bliss.
Never done any civilian time though been in Prison, Saughton loads of times
and once in Shotts playing the lads inside. I have a 100% record v the inmates.