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 ...

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

But debtors' prisons were slowly abolished until they were closed entirely in the U.S. and Europe in the mid 19th century because they disproportionately targeted the poor.

“Long thought to be a relic of the 19th century, debtors’ prisons are still alive and well in Michigan,” said Kary Moss, the ACLU of Michigan’s executive director. “Jailing our clients because they ...