The novel "Little Dorrit", published originally between 1855 and 1857, is a work of satire on the shortcomings of the government and society of the period. Much of Dickens' ire is focused upon the institutions of debtor's prisons-in which people who owed money were imprisoned, unable to work, until they have repaid their debts. The representative prison in this case is the Marshalsea where the author's own father had been imprisoned. Most of Dickens'...

In a minimum security federal prison, home to drug dealers, swindlers, and tax evaders, three former judges meet each day to write briefs, handle cases for other inmates, and dispense jailhouse justice. They also spend hours hatching schemes to make money. When one of their schemes goes awry, snaring an innocent on the outside, the Brethren's days of quietly marking time are over.