State Bans on Debtors\u27 Prisons and Criminal Justice Debt

Since the 1990s, and increasingly in the wake of the Great Recession, many municipalities, forced to operate under tight budgetary constraints, have turned to the criminal justice system as an untapped revenue stream. Raising the specter of the debtors\u27 prisons once prevalent in the United States, Imprisonment for failure to pay debts owed to the state has provoked growing concern over the year