What is the debtors prison?

Answer 1

Fleet Prison was a notorious London prison by the side of the Fleet River in London. The prison was built in 1197 and was in use until 1844. It was demolished in 1846.

The prison was built in 1197 off what is now Farringdon Street, on the eastern bank of the Fleet River after which it was named. It came into particular prominence from being used as a place of reception for persons committed by the Star Chamber, and, afterwards, for debtors and persons imprisoned for contempt of court by the Court of Chancery. In 1381, during the Peasants' Revolt, it was deliberately destroyed by Wat Tyler's men.

In 1666, during the Great Fire of London, it was burned down on the third day of the fire, the prisoners fleeing at the last moments. The then-warden of the prison, Sir Jeremy Whichcote, purchased Caron House in Lambeth after the fire to house the prison's debtors while the prison was rebuilt on the original site at his own expense.

During the 18th century, Fleet Prison was mainly used for debtors and bankrupts. It usually contained about 300 prisoners and their families. Some inmates were forced to beg from their cells that overlooked the street, in order to pay for their keep. At that time prisons were profit-making enterprises. Prisoners had to pay for food and lodging. There were fees for turning keys or for taking irons off, and Fleet Prison had the highest fees in England. There was even a grille built into the Farringdon Street prison wall, so that prisoners might beg alms from passers-by. But prisoners did not necessarily have to live within Fleet Prison itself; as long as they paid the keeper to compensate him for loss of earnings, they could take lodgings within a particular area outside the prison walls called the "Liberty of the Fleet" or the "Rules of the Fleet". From 1613 on, there were also many clandestine Fleet Marriages.

The head of the prison was termed the warden, who was appointed by Letters patent. It became a frequent practice of the holder of the patent to farm out the prison to the highest bidder. This custom made the prison long notorious for the cruelties inflicted on prisoners. One purchaser of the office, Thomas Bambridge, who became warden in 1728, was of particularly evil repute. He was guilty of the greatest extortions upon prisoners, and, according to a committee of the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the state of English gaols, arbitrarily and unlawfully loaded with irons, put into dungeons, and destroyed prisoners for debt, treating them in the most barbarous and cruel manner, in high violation and contempt of the laws. He was committed to Newgate Prison, and an act was passed to prevent his enjoying the office of warden.

During the Gordon Riots in 1780 Fleet Prison was again destroyed and rebuilt in 1781-1782. In 1842, in pursuance of an act of parliament, by which inmates of the Marshalsea, Fleet and Queen's Bench Prisons were relocated to the Queen's Prison (as the Queen's Bench Prison was renamed), it was finally closed, and in 1844 sold to the corporation of the City of London, by whom it was pulled down in 1846.

National Geographic Channel

If you think debtors today have a hard time, go back 300 years with Piers Hernu to London's Fleet Prison.

Greed and fraud leads to one of the biggest financial meltdowns ever. Thousands of investors lose everything. Sound familiar? Except this was nearly 300 years ago and the losers are thrown not just into debt, but into one of the most brutal prisons of all time.

Who better to investigate than former city boy turned gold smuggler Piers Hernu. He found himself sharing a crowded cell in Nepal. But that was a picnic compared to the hell of London's notorious Fleet prison. Toffs and commoners alike were banged up under the brutal regime of governor Thomas Bambridge. Georgian society was horrified to discover the torture, cruelty and death that took place behind the walls of Fleet Prison, conveniently located on the edge of the City Of London.

HISTORY'S HARDEST PRISON

Thursday 25 November at 6:00PM

National Geographic Channel London's Fleet Prison

AND TURKEY

Since the Republic of Turkey was founded, it has experienced Islamic and ethnical conflicts. Right-wing and left-wing conflicts that began in 1970s among the people continued for 20 years and more than ten thousand people died in these conflicts which were experienced in every city, county and even village of the country.

On September 12th, 1980, a military coup seized power, and the oppressive junta arrested tens of thousand people across the country and these conflicts between the people were terminated.

Turkey constructed many prisons to establish its authority in this environment of conflict which had continued for seventy years. There are prisons in every city and county of the country.

In recent years, Turkey has been catching up with developments which took place around the world in the last century. When the world is changing, Turkey takes part in that change. Furthermore, when the world is changing, Turkey experiences that change two times. While it experiences the change in the world, on the other hand it also experiences a capitalization process.

In the last 30 years, in Turkey's process of capitalization, hundreds of thousands of businesses have been closed down, millions of people have lost their jobs, become impoverished or joined the ranks of the unemployed. A rapid monopolization is being experinced in the country and the people speedily become impoverished, and cannot pay their debts. A heavy prison sentence is applied for debtors in Turkey. In spite of the 38th article of the Turkish Constitution and the protocol provision in Annex 4 of European Convention on Human Rights, people are still imprisoned for up to 5 years in Turkey because of their debts. Hundereds of thousands of people are judged because they are debtor and imprisoned.

Turkey has a futures market system. Small sized businesses provide for their cash needs from companies called factoring (legal usurer) companies in consideration of a certain interest and sign an instrument called cheque showing that they are debtor. If repayment is not made by the business, factoring companies filing a criminal complaint to the attorney generalship and presenting the cheque to the attorney generalship are enough to arrest the debtor.

Hundres of thousands of people are judged because of their debts and imprisoned. Almost everyday suicides are reported on the news. The reactions of non-governmental organizations (NGO) are ignored by the members of parliament who are supported by factoring companies, and by the governmental authority.

Turkish laws have a great tolerance for ordinary crimes. The penalties for crimes such as burglary, rape, defraudation, actual bodily harm and coinage offence are far away from deterrence. Conditional release is applied for the crimes requiring a penalty of imprisonment up to 3 years and the criminals are released at the stage of judging. It is almost impossible to encounter persons that are in prisons due to these crimes. Terror criminals are released by a law which is called effective repentance law and they are not arrested.

Almost all of the prisons in Turkey which have a large number and capacity are full of people imprisoned because of their debts. No quarter is granted to debtors and they are improsoned where they are caught. Two types of dormitory system are applied in prisons. Some prisoners stay at the boss dormitory located at the upper floors of the prison and prisoners who do not have money stay at the dormitories located at the ground and basement floors at very bad conditions.

Prisoners at the boss dormitory are probably people who have large amounts of debt and who have the chance of living humanly in the prison. Most of the prisoners are people who are desperate, have no money and have small amounts of debts. The latter are subject to inhuman treatment and live at very bad conditions. Whether having large or small amounts of debts, having the chance of living humanly in the prison or not, people are deprived of their freedom because of their debts and if their money is not enough to pay their debts, they are subjected to inhuman torture.

But I would like to make a very important point!

Turkey is not the only country which has imprisoned debtors. When we make a search in the dusty racks of history, we encounter the Fleet prison in London. It was a debtor prison in England, which caused big social discussions and was all the time brought to an end with mutinies.

I recommend the documentary called Çek mağdurları Debtor Prison in Turkey

on National Geographic tv channel. The documentary examines the Fleet Debtor Prison in London/England.

The year is: 1700s and earlier. That is we are talking about 300 years ago and much more earlier. We are wandering on the dusty pages of the history. We have not been able to find the place of Turkey in the Europe and world of the year of 2010. It is possible to say that Turkey is not at the year of 1700, which punishes its citizens for their debts and deems its citizens worthy of an imprisonment penalty that has no place in today's world.

Answer 2

Debtors' prison is where one in the 1800's went when they couldnt pay thier debt. Often it was for taxes.