Hello

I also had a relative in the Southwell house of correction in 1861. The Nottinghamshire records office holds documents called of "A calendar of prisoners tried at the spring Assizes" Presumably there were 4 documents a year. Assizes was the highest court in Nottinghamshire that sentenced offenders. A summary of all its cases are contained in this document. You can e-mail the records office for details. Once I had found out the trial date, I then found further details from a local newspaper called "The Nottingham Journal" that had more details about the case. Copies of this are stored on microfilm in the local studies library in Nottingham. I sent them an e-mail and they searched their records for me. The actual court records for Nottinghamshire are stored in the National Archives in Kew Gardens, London.

Happy hunting
Mark.