In early twentieth-century U.S., nonpayment of fines was a major cause of imprisonment. Persons in prison for nonpayment of fines amounted to 3% of prisoners in 1880. The share of prisoners held for non-payment share rose to 12% in 1910. That share then subsequently fell.
Because imprisonment for nonpayment of fines typically was of rather brief duration compared to imprisonment for criminal offenses, commitments to prison for nonpayment amounted to a much higher share of prison commitments. In 1910, persons committed to county and city jails for nonpayment of fines amounted to 62% of the total number of persons committed to county and city jails to serve a sentence. This extensive use of imprisonment for nonpayment is similar to the use of debtor prisons in England in the seventeenth century.
Prisoners for Non-Payment of Fines, U.S. 1880-1933
| Year | Males | Females | Total | Sex Ratio | all prisoners | non-payment share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1880 | 1,663 | 368 | 2,031 | 4.5 | 58,409 | 3% |
| 1890 | 3,208 | 483 | 3,691 | 6.6 | 80,634 | 5% |
| 1904 | 9,198 | 1,517 | 10,715 | 6.1 | 107,515 | 10% |
| 1910 | 14,447 | 2,477 | 16,924 | 5.8 | 139,081 | 12% |
| 1923 | 5,157 | 395 | 5,552 | 13.1 | 165,447 | 3% |
| 1933 | 3,881 | 261 | 4,142 | 14.9 | 244,282 | 2% |
| Source: see "non-payment of fines" sheet in US long-run prisoner statistics | ||||||
While typically inability to pay formally bars imprisonment under law, poverty explains imprisonment in practice. The report on the prisoner census of 1923 forthrightly observed:
Most persons of this class {imprisoned for nonpayment of fine} are convicted of minor offenses {and hence ordered to pay a fine}, for which a relatively short term of imprisonment is imposed on those who fail to pay their fines. …Most prisoners who are committed for nonpayment of fine are unable to pay their fines because of poverty.^
U.S. prisoner statistics after 1933 do not identify persons imprisoned for nonpayment of fines. More fragmentary statistics indicate that, through to the present, a considerable number of persons continued to be imprisoned for nonpayment of fines and debts in the U.S. and elsewhere, particularly for payments required under child-support orders. The main underlying reason for their imprisonment most likely continues to be poverty.