I've been laid up with a nasty dose of food poisoning for the last 36 hours and still do not feel too clever.
The LRO catalogue is on-line and is not very user-friendly. If you want to view these records you will have to visit LRO yourself. I would allow at least two hours for this search as you will have to work back from the date of the Census for possibly as much as six months.
Where prisoners were sent to serve their sentences varied by reason of the location of crime, the nature of the crime and therefore where they were convicted and the space available in any prison. Prior to about 1877 prisons were under the jurisdiction of the local borough or county and normally (space permitting) in Lancashire sentences of about six months or less would be served in the local borough gaol (the New Bailey, Salford up to 1868 and then after that Strangeways). Sentences up to about 12 months would have been served in the county gaol. Sentences of more than 12 months would first be served locally and then the prisoner would be transferred to a long term prisons.
The situation at Liverpool was slightly different, it had become a location for Assizes as early as 1835 and therefore conducted executions ( as did Lancaster Prison), and was used for long term prisoners. Long term prisoners from Lancashire could be sent anywhere e.g Kirkdale or Walton (Liverpool), Wakefield, Pentonville, Millbank etc...
From the information given it is impossible to speculate with any certainty the nature of the crime or whether in fact he was convicted of any crime. You will need to look at the prison registers , the court records, or if one is available, a newspaper report. The 1911 Census only tells you that he was prison on the night that it was taken. He could have been in there on remand and acquitted at trial, he could have been convicted later and given a sentence of six months or less, or he could have been sent for trial at the Assizes and removed to another prison.
Gerard
