THE NEW DEBTORS PRISON! Probation companies hound poor offenders over debts

A debtors' prison is a prison for people who are unable to pay debt. These prisons have been used since ancient times. Through the mid 19th century, debtors' prisons were a common way to deal with unpaid debt in Western Europe.^[1] Though increasing access and lenience throughout the history of bankruptcy law have rendered debtors' prisons irrelevant over most of the world,^{[citation needed]} as of May 2013, they persist in countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, and Greece.
Since the late 20th century, the term debtors' prison has sometimes come to be applied when a court sends someone to prison over criminal duties which would normally be imposed monetarily, but can not be paid. For example, in some jurisdictions within the United States, people can be held in contempt of court and jailed after non-payment of child support, garnishments, confiscations, fines, or back taxes. The charge for going to jail is being in contempt of court. The reason for the contempt of court charge is negligent non-payment, obstruction, or fraud.^[2]
Additionally, though properly served civil duties over private debts in nations such as the United States will merely result in a default judgement being rendered in absentia if the defendant willfully declines to appear by law,^[3] a substantial number of indigent debtors are legally incarcerated for failure to appear at civil debt proceedings.^{[4][5][6][7][8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debtors'_prison}