The Michigan Senate has approved legislation from the state House that will limit incarceration for minor offenses. It's part of a larger bipartisan effort by the state Legislature to lower Michigan's growing incarcerated population.
The U.S. Justice Department says that population has nearly tripled over the last four decades even as total crime has significantly decreased.
Operating under the bipartisan interest to analyze incarceration, the Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration released legislative recommendations in January. Those recommendations included the House bill packages that the Senate approved Thursday.