The following article is about a leaked proposal to close Dartmoor Prison at Princetown in Devon:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-10656458 

Dartmoor Prison was built between 1806 and 1809 to act as a depot for prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars.  In 1850, the building was commissioned as a convict gaol and it has remained so ever since.  During the Victorian era, Dartmoor Prison was reputed to have the most severe régime of any British prison and it was used to incarcerate many notable convicts.   

Between 31 May and 2 June 1901, Arthur Conan Doyle and Bertram Fletcher Robinson stayed at the Duchy Hotel in Princetown.  Whilst there they met the governor, deputy governor, chaplain and physician of Dartmoor Prison.  On 13 June 1901, two convicts called William Silvester and Fergus Frith made a well-publicised escape from Dartmoor Prison.   At around that same time, Conan Doyle was writing the third instalment of The Hound of the Baskervilles (Chapters V-VI of XV) and he introduced a character called Selden, a fugitive from 'Princetown Prison'.

Arthur Conan Doyle also referred to 'Princetown Prison' in three other stories: The Sign of Four (1890), How the King Held the Brigadier (1895) and How the Brigadier Triumphed in England (1903).  The first of these stories was the second Sherlock Holmes novel and the others are both Brigadier Gerard stories.

References:

Pugh, B.W., Spiring, P.R. & Bhanji, S., Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and Devon, (London: MX Publishing Ltd., June 2010).

Simpson, A. W. B. 'Shooting Felons: Law, Practice, Official Culture and, Perceptions of Morality’ in Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 241-246, June 2005 [a history on escapes from Dartmoor Prison].

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By Paul Spiring 2010.