text: Charles Dickens's father spent time in debtors' prison. How did they work? Inmates were charged room and board, already unable to pay their debts; how could one hope to ever get out? Was there a set 'sentence', or were prisoners simply dependent on others paying their way back into society?
  
  Author: td4999 
  
  Rockinrobynred: "Are work houses and debtors prison the same thing? They had a couple on Call the midwive that used to live in one, it didn’t sound nice."  
  OwlOfDerision: "I answered a similar question a few months ago; you can see the answer [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/7hau5e/in_poldark_18th_century_lenders_are_able_to_call/)"  
  horatio_jr: "if I were a rich guy back then, could I buy a person's debt and  force the debtor to do whatever by telling him the other option was debtor's prison?" 
tokens: Charles Dickens 's father spent time in debtors ' prison . How did they work ? Inmates were charged room and board , already unable to pay their debts ; how could one hope to ever get out ? Was there a set ' sentence ' , or were prisoners simply dependent on others paying their way back into society ? Author : td4999 Rockinrobynred : " Are work houses and debtors prison the same thing ? They had a couple on Call the midwive that used to live in one , it did n’t sound nice . " OwlOfDerision : " I answered a similar question a few months ago ; you can see the answer [ here](https://www.reddit.com / r / AskHistorians / comments/7hau5e / in_poldark_18th_century_lenders_are_able_to_call/ ) " horatio_jr : " if I were a rich guy back then , could I buy a person 's debt and force the debtor to do whatever by telling him the other option was debtor 's prison ? "
nps.text: Charles Dickens's father
nps.id: np0
nps.text: time
nps.id: np1
nps.text: debtors' prison
nps.id: np2
nps.text: they
nps.id: np3
nps.text: Inmates
nps.id: np4
nps.text: room
nps.id: np5
nps.text: board
nps.id: np6
nps.text: their debts
nps.id: np7
nps.text: a set 'sentence
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nps.text: prisoners
nps.id: np9
nps.text: others
nps.id: np10
nps.text: their way
nps.id: np11
nps.text: society
nps.id: np12
nps.text: Author
nps.id: np13
nps.text: td4999
nps.id: np14
nps.text: work houses
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nps.text: debtors prison
nps.id: np16
nps.text: They
nps.id: np17
nps.text: a couple
nps.id: np18
nps.text: the midwive
nps.id: np19
nps.text: OwlOfDerision
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nps.text: I
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nps.text: a similar question
nps.id: np22
nps.text: you
nps.id: np23
nps.text: the answer
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nps.text: here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/7hau5e/in_poldark_18th_century_lenders_are_able_to_call/
nps.id: np25
nps.text: I
nps.id: np26
nps.text: a rich guy
nps.id: np27
nps.text: I
nps.id: np28
nps.text: a person's debt
nps.id: np29
nps.text: the debtor
nps.id: np30
nps.text: him
nps.id: np31
nps.text: the other option
nps.id: np32
nps.text: debtor's prison
nps.id: np33
nps.text: Charles Dickens's father spent time in debtors' prison. How did they work?
nps.id: np34
nps.text: Call the midwive
nps.id: np35
metadata.source: reddit_AskHistorians_formatted.json