“However, though we shouldn’t tolerate gangs, we need to bring ex-members back into society and help them lead a normal life, or you are not going to solve this”
You are quite naive.
There are some “problems” which simply cannot be “solved”. They just exist.
The only way that the “problem” of gang bangers being unable to get work (whether as ex-gang members or otherwise) is to get rid of gang bangers, period, by getting rid of the subculture that spawns them.
The overwhelming majority of them are NEVER going to be able to live “as normal individuals” after going that route. As their tattoos reveal, they are “scarred for life”. And I don’t particularly care about that or their futures, insofar as they can be confined, controlled, corralled, and kept away from decent people.
Best posts of this thread so far are #27 and #31.
Maybe not, and I’m not suggesting that we can ever let them be free either. If they are dangerous, they are dangerous.
End of story.
However, if you want to put an end to the gang problem, genocide is not a solution, which is essentially what you’re suggesting.