The New Bill Collector Tactic: Jail Time  In some states, debt
collectors use tactics that might land you in jail if you don't
appear for court hearings for debtor's examinations.  Related
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There Still Such a Thing as “Debtor's Prisons?”  Debtor's
prisons were an archaic tool used by lenders to imprison poor
people who did not repay their debts. In the United States,
debtor's prisons were commonly used until about the mid-1800's.
Even some of the signatories to the Declaration of Independence
had bad credit and spent some time in U.S. debtor's prisons.
Beginning in the mid-1800's, many states eliminated debtor's
prisons after the U.S. government outlawed imprisonment for
failure to pay debt at the federal level. However, some
states—roughly a third—still use jail as a method to coerce
debtors to pay certain debts.  Today, you cannot go to prison
for failing to pay for a “civil debt”