Editing Debt relief (section)

===Historical===
[[File:Sick men's ward in the Marshalsea prison.JPG|thumb|upright|The sick men's ward at [[Marshalsea]] [[debtors' prison]]]]
If a debt cannot be or is not repaid, alternatives that were common historically but are now rare include [[debt bondage]]—including [[debt peonage]]: being bound until the debt is repaid; and [[debt slavery]], when the debt is so great (or labor valued so low) that the debt will never be repaid—and [[debtors' prison]].

Debt slavery can persist across generations, future generations being made to work to pay off debts incurred by past generations. Debt bondage is today considered a form of "modern day [[slavery]]" in international law,<ref>[http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/asiaproject/Gupta.html The Bondage of Debt: A Photo Essay] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052323/http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/asiaproject/Gupta.html |date=2016-03-04 }}, by Shilpi Gupta</ref> and banned as such, in Article 1(a) of the [[United Nations 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery]]. Nevertheless, the practice continues in some nations. In most developed nations, debts cannot be inherited.

Debtors' prison has been largely abolished, but remains in some forms in the US, for example if one fails to make [[child support]] payments.