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Published in:
2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Appendix No. 7: Imprisonment for Debts in the United States
Authors : Gustave de Beaumont, Alexis de Tocqueville
Published in: On the Penitentiary System in the United States and its Application to France
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
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Abstract
The authors describe how American law has slowly shifted away from imprisoning debtors before an official judgement, a practice they inherited from England. Several states modified the law to allow the debtor to prove honesty, established a minimum to the debt before imprisonment, and excluded women from imprisonment for debt. Tocqueville and Beaumont especially condemn Pennsylvania debtor laws, which increase the total number of imprisoned unnecessarily.