Голицынский, 7-е издание – Артикль – Упражнение 77

Until near the end of the 19th century it was the law in England that if a man was unable to pay a debt, even a small one, he could be imprisoned. This imprisonment might very well be for life, as it was impossible for the people in prison to work at their ordinary occupations and so make money to repay the sum they had borrowed. If they had friends who could bring them materials to work with, they might work with their hands, sewing or making boots, for instance.
The great English novelist Charles Dickens knew a great deal about the debtors’ prisons from personal experience, for when he was about ten, his father was imprisoned for debt, and the whole family had to go and live with him in the prison because they had nowhere else to live. The mother and the children, however, could leave the place when they wished; but at ten o’clock every evening the great gates were shut for the night and no one could leave or enter until morning. Dickens described the life in the debtors’ prisons in some of his novels. It was largely because of Dickens’ sharp criticism that the English Government was finally forced to do away with debtors’ prisons.