1. In 1550 Parliament passed a law stating that every parish had to build a workhouse for the poor. Edward VI set an example by giving permission for Bridewell Palace in London to be used as a workhouse. In exchange for food and shelter, the people who lived in the workhouse worked without wages. If people without work refused to go to the workhouse they were to be treated as vagabonds. To pay for these workhouses, vicars were given permission to ask everyone in the parish to give money. If people refused, the vicar had to report them to his bishop. Workhouses did not solve the problem. It has been estimated that in 1570 about 10% of the population were still wandering around the country looking for work. Many towns built a house of correction in the late 1500s, to punish and reform offenders. The first of these was the Bridewell Palace in London and so all came to be known as Bridewells. Vagrants, unmarried mothers and runaway apprentices were sent to the Bridewell where they were whipped and set to hard work. They were often used as an extra punishment when other punishments or warnings had not worked. The House of Correction was a type of building built after the passing of the Elizabethan Poor Law (1601). Houses of correction were places where those who were "unwilling to work" including vagrants and beggars were set to work. The building of houses of correction came after the passing of an amendment to the Elizabethan Poor Law.

2. A debtors' prison is a prison for those who are unable to pay debt. Prior to the mid 19th century debtors' prisons were a common way to deal with unpaid debt. Debtors, both men and women, were locked up together in a single large cell until their families paid their debt. Debt prisoners often died of diseases contracted from other debt prisoners. Conditions included starvation and abuse from other prisoners. If the father of a family was imprisoned for debt, the family business often suffered while the mother and children fell into poverty. Unable to pay the debt, the father often remained in debtors' prison for many years. Some debt prisoners were released to become serfsor indentured servants (debt bondage) until they paid off their debt in labor.