Some printings of the original Eric Holmes-edited version of Basic D&D came with paper chits (which you drew from a bag) instead of dice. Sounds like that might be a useful thing for gaming in prison. A bit of searching turned up an image of one of the uncut chit cards:
FYI for those not old enough/not into vintage editions of D&D, this is Holmes Basic (the box, and what came in it, from a printing that did include dice):
ETA: Having finally read the article, it does mention the D&D Basic chits. Homemade chits, along with spinners and playing cards, are mentioned as random number generators the prisoners use to get around bans on dice.
