Debtor Prisons in the 21st Century USA: Did you know that Americans can be locked up because they can't afford to pay court fines?

GUILTY OF BEING POOR           

By Eric Ruder

The jailers of the 19th century — even in the pre-Civil War South — largely abandoned the practice of imprisoning people for falling into debt as counterproductive and ultimately barbaric. In the 1970s and ’80s, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that incarcerating people who can’t pay fines because of poverty violates the U.S. Constitution.

Apparently, though, some states and county jails never got the memo. Welcome to the debtors’ prisons of the 21st century. Click here to read the rest of the article.

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