USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -A debtors’ prison is a prison for people who are unable to pay debt. Until the mid-19th century, debtors’ prisons (usually similar in form to locked workhouses) were a common way to deal with unpaid debt in Western Europe.

Detailed explanation-2: -Library of Congress In the United States, debtors’ prisons were banned under federal law in 1833. A century and a half later, in 1983, the Supreme Court affirmed that incarcerating indigent debtors was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection clause.

Detailed explanation-3: -If you were thrown into prison and had no family, you could not earn to repay your debts, which continued to accumulate. Most were left with little choice but to beg for alms from passers-by. Conditions for debtors who could not raise money were appalling, with whole families cramped into overcrowded, cold, damp cells.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Marshalsea Prison in Borough, south London, housed a range of prisoners from the 14th century up until its closure in 1842. In the 19th century it was mainly used to imprison debtors and their families who, without financial support, had nowhere else to live.