New York Governor David Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith announced an agreement of Friday March 27 that would effectively end the harshest provisions of the New York Rockefeller Laws The Agreement ends mandatory jail for first-time and non-felony offenders. It also gives judges total authority to send non-violent addicts to treatment instead of jail.
The new drug reform agreement is included in New York budget bill A156 as Part AAA beginning on page 113. To see Part AAA in Microsoft Word format click on the link below to the information provided by William Halsted of the New York Legislative Retrieval System.