US woman arrested over nine-year overdue rental video

This happens "often" with public library books, also. That scenario happened to the wife of a coworker.

We used to have laws against debtors prisons but those have been gradually eliminated. The legal hack around creation of debtors prisons revolves around demanding the victims presence at a civil trial, no show results in warrant for contempt of court. The other maneuver is if someone owes you "something" as a civil lawsuit, if you can convince a judge to file it instead as a property theft crime, suddenly a simple civil matter converts into a criminal matter.