Although the U.S. abolished debtors' prisons in the 1830s, more than a third of U.S. states allow the police to haul people in who don't pay all manner of debts, from bills for health care ...

Thomas Hosmer Shepard's 19th-century painting of a debtor in Fleet Street Prison isn't as dated as it looks. The phenomenon of debtors' prisons creates a two-tiered justice system. For poor people ...

Some cities, meanwhile, have joined states in reviving the use of debtors' prisons. Philadelphia courts in 2011 sought to collect on court-related debt from 320,000 people, involving obligations ...

FLEET PRISON AND THE OTHER DEBTORS' JAILS THE "SAM WELLER CABMAN" CHANGES SINCE "PICKWICK" WAS WRITTEN. Share full article. From the London Telegraph, June 26. July 8, 1879; ...

Like debtors’ prison, which has slunk back into existence in many localities across the country, taxation by citation should be abolished permanently. Andrew Ross is Professor of Social and Cultural ...

The Dickensian Return of Debtors’ Prisons. In their usual money-making zeal, local governments have targeted the poor and brought us back to the 19th century. Dan King ...

Debtors’ prison is back! Not the fetid and dreary kind from Dickens novels, of course, but a shiny, impersonal, high-volume, 21st century variety.

Chris Maselli talks new book about freedom ...

The racquet court of Fleet Debtors' Prison in London by English caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson. Hulton Archive/Getty Images. How the poor are ending up stuck in modern-day debtors’ prisons ...

It’s worse than debtor’s prison. It’s an impossible situation for working families. It’s killing our ability to support the economy. ...