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A bill passed by the Tennessee Senate on Thursday seeks to address jail overcrowding and save money across the state by reducing the number of nonviolent offenders who are arrested.

The bill, which is sponsored by Sen. Jon Lundberg, R-Bristol, would give police more discretion to issue a citation for a nonviolent misdemeanor crime instead of making them feel obligated to arrest the offenders. It would also do away with judges being forced under the law to automatically issue arrest warrants for people who miss their court dates because Lundberg thinks that’s “not a good use of jail space.” Instead, it would be up to each judge.

“Jail space should be reserved for the people that, frankly, we don’t want on the streets that can do us harm,” Lundberg said. “The discussion right now in Sullivan County is jail expansion. These are the kind of things we can do to not necessarily need to expand the jails.”

The main jail was built in 1986 and has been overcrowded for much of that time. It was expanded in 1999 to add 150 beds, and a separate building, called the extension, opened in 2005 to house 240 inmates. The combined capacity of both facilities is 621, which is regularly exceeded by more than 300 inmates.