You think "debtors' prisons" shut down in the 1800s? Think again.
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You think "debtors' prisons" shut down in the 1800s? Think again.
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About this listen
The US government outlawed debtors' prisons in the 1830s, the Supreme Court has ruled they're unconstitutional, and you'll find sentences like this on the internet: "Today it is illegal to put someone in prison because of a debt." So how is it that courts across the country lock up thousands of low-income people each year, according to estimates, because they haven't paid up their traffic tickets, garbage collection bills and other minor violations? Lisa Foster, a former judge and co-founder of the Fines and Fees Justice Center, says many courts have become "a place of oppression" because they "make the measure of justice the measure of someone's wealth. That is fundamentally un-American and it is unjust," Lisa tells us. "But our system does it every day."