Debtor's prison

Imagine you borrow some money from a friend to buy a toy, but you forget to pay them back. Your friend might be upset, but they can't just lock you up in their house forever until you pay the money back. That wouldn't be fair, right?

Well, a long time ago, people had different rules about borrowing money. If you borrowed money and couldn't pay it back, you could be sent to something called a debtor's prison. This is where people who owed money to someone else were locked up until they could pay their debts.

In debtor's prison, people would have to live in really bad conditions. There was no good food, water, or healthcare, and there were no beds for people to sleep in. They were often locked up for a really long time, sometimes years, until they could pay back what they owed.

This was a really bad thing because people who were poor could get stuck in debtor's prison forever because they couldn't pay back their debts. It was like being punished for being poor. Eventually, people realized that this was not fair and stopped using debtor's prison as a punishment. Now, if people owe money, there are other ways to help them pay it back without locking them up.