ROCKFORD (WIFR) -- Debtors prisons were outlawed in the 1800s, but in Illinois residents still might get jail time for not paying their bills.

Debt collectors are going to extreme measures to collect unpaid credit cards, medical bills, and auto loans. If people don't show up to court or don't pay their debt, a judge has the discretion to issue a body attachment for their arrest. It's akin to an arrest warrant.

Hon. Janet Holmgren, Chief Judge of the 17th Judicial Circuit Court, says she isn't aware of it being a problem locally.

"I haven't received any information as Chief Judge from anyone in our community suggesting that our judges have in any way been overstepping their bound or abusing the use of jail as a debtors prison."

But in Winnebago County, Sheriff Richard Meyers says his deputies have served 753 financial compliance warrants since March of 2007. Most people are served after being pulled over for a traffic violation.

In 2011, 241 people have gone to jail for issues related to not paying their bills. The Sheriff's Office currently has 383 more warrants to serve.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says it's illegal to put people in jail if they don't know about the debt or they simply can't afford to pay.

"In those two circumstances it is illegal to throw somebody into jail," she said in a phone interview Wednesday. "It's akin to debtors' prison."

Technically people aren't being arrested because they can't pay, though. Warrants are issued because people fail to show up to court -- or willfully refuse to pay a debt.

Cindy James was pulled over eight years ago because the sticker on her license plate was expired by just one day. She had an $1800 unpaid medical bill from services she received at Med Choice on E. State St. for carpel tunnel syndrome she developed by working long hours as a waitress.

She had been making payments, but forgot about a court date.

When the officer ran her name, an outstanding warrant for her arrest showed up, and she was arrested in front of her 14-year-old son.

"I think that going to the doctor shouldn't be a luxury and if you are forced to go to a doctor because you can't use your hands to even go to work you shouldn't be under the threat of being arrested if you can't pay your bill," James says.

She says she rescheduled her court date but that didn't take the warrant out of the system.

"I just felt like a common criminal for not paying a medical bill."

She paid $263 to bond out. That money was used to pay her debt. But eight years later, and several bouts of unemployment, she's still paying.