debtor prison
Jail for borrowers
A debtor prison is a jail where people were confined for failing to pay their debts.
Common in Britain and America until the 19th century, the practice trapped people in a cruel paradox—imprisoned, they couldn't earn money to repay what they owed.
Dickens's father spent time in debtor prison.
The term now appears in debates about jailing people for unpaid fines or child support.
- locked upConfined or secured
- incarcerationConfinement in jail
- dungeonSubterranean prison chamber
- shacklesMetal bonds for prisoners
- ball and chainFetter limiting prisoner movement
thrown in jail · creditor · workhouse · poor house · Charles Dickens · Dickens · poverty · gaol · confinement · bondage · hard labor · destitution · chains · jailer · insolvent · pauper · cell · sentence
- David CopperfieldDavid, Janet, orphan, Canterbury, Yarmouth
- Georgian BritainGeorge III, Walpole, Culloden, Georgian era, Regency period
- historical lawattainder, Justinian Code, Roman law, curtesy, Napoleonic Code
- penal historygaols, jails, penitentiaries, convict, convicts
- punishmentsjail, timeout, grounded, fine, suspension
- Victorian institutionsworkhouse, poorhouse, almshouse, lunatic asylum, infirmary
debtor prisonmaximum security prison
Highest-level detention facility
death row · supermax · penitentiary · federal prison · state prison
debtor prisondebt forgiveness
Cancellation of amounts owed
debt relief · financial freedom · bankruptcy protection · jubilee · clean slate
debtor prisonbankruptcy
Legal status when insolvent
bankruptcy protection · Chapter 7 · Chapter 11 · bankruptcy court · debt restructuring
debtor, prison, debt, debts, debtors, prisons, prisoner, prisoners, imprison