But Steve, was there a British tradition of singing  in  prison? And for that matter, what about work songs of prison inmates in Australia? The American prison songs tradition is parallel to sea chanteys and work songs, all situations where men worked together with hand tools doing heavy, rhythmic labor. There was a subset of "track lining" songs for railroad workers.

Come to think of it, I don't know if the Original Poster is referring to the songs you describe, or to the prison work songs I'm referring to - which seem to have been sung mostly by Black prison inmates, often with ties to religious songs.

-Joe-