population numbers in new York city have been increasing though,,,

so I doubt diminishing population is a factor,,,

Really? From what source are you getting that info?

This proves that the death penalty is working.

there is no death penalty in nyc

That's only New York city.

so, in nyc, the decline in homicide isn't proof of a non existent death penalty working,,,,

I am a probation officer in Minnesota so I have some knowledge of the nationwide movement that is taking place that has an impact on some of those stats.
Government agencies are now utilizing evidence based practices as far as how they do business on a day to day basis instead of just doing things the same way they always have been done.
In working with juveniles, there is something called the juvenile detention alternatives initiative which really took hold in Chicago as the first major US city, also very significant in the twin cities in MN, and Albuquerque NM. The premise of this initiative is instead of just locking everyone up after they have been arrested is to complete a risk assessment on each person after they arrested looking at factors such as current offense, criminal history, school attendance, history of running away, and family stability just to name a few. Once that assessment is completed they are given a score which then determines whether they need to be detained until court, sent to a more structured shelter until court, or released back to their parents and scheduled with a court date. An unintended consequence of this is that there was not a lot of buy in by police officers and they got tired of arresting people and going through all the new paperwork, only to see the people they arrested back out on the street later that day. In my experience, what they have started doing is turning their backs on smaller crimes and only arresting people for things they know that they will be detained for. There is some speculation as to whether that is going on or not, but I have heard officers admit to it where I am from.

Data suggests that serious crimes are on the decline as well, which I don't understand because there are constant attacks on social welfare programs by tea party politicians which provide the most basic necessities to people. When people can't take care of their family's most basic needs is when you are going to start seeing a spike in crime again.

It costs a lot of money to house and feed people in correctional facilities. If you keep trying to cut taxes eventually it makes it way down to the state, county, and city levels where they have to start changing their criteria for who they detain so they can stay within their facility budget.

Bush actually signed the prison rape elimination act into law in 2003 I think which put new safeguards in place to try and prevent new victims from being created within our country's prison/workhouse/jail systems. 1 of the 2 things he did right.

I haven't seen any of my taxes cut recently or in the past, matter of fact, I think the largest tax hike in history was recently passed called Obamacare.
How about. prisoners growing their own food or working at a prison industry to pay for their keep?