Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. Hey, guess what? Debtors’ prison is back! Not the fetid and dreary kind from Dickens ...

It was not pleasant to be in debt in Victorian England. Debtors’ prisons existed that were full of families whose only crime was their inability to repay their debt. Union workhouses forced ...

Before that, debtors who had no assets could be swept into prison even if they owed only pennies. Because authorities refused to pay for food and clothing( as they did for murderers and robbers ...

Flanders challenges our received wisdom about Victorian London ... Dickens' father was locked in a London debtors' prison, while 12-year-old Dickens worked long days in a factory and lived ...

Martin Daunton examines Dickens' brilliant evocation of Victorian social conditions ... management had led him and his family to a debtors' prison - where the young Charles witnessed misery ...

Debtors’ prisons existed, but were few and far between ... Hanging or transportation to Australia was mostly used for more serious crimes in Victorian England. People kept in ordinary prisons, where ...

Debtors prisons were a constant presence looming ... Dickens played down many of its horrors for fear of upsetting the Victorian constitution. After receiving an inheritance, John Dickens was ...

Martin Daunton examines Dickens' brilliant evocation of Victorian social conditions ... management had led him and his family to a debtors' prison - where the young Charles witnessed misery ...