Former heroin addict and prison inmate Randolph Garcia witnessed the gang-style execution of one of his best friends. "I knew he had been targeted for death, and I knew who was going to kill him. When it happened, I saw his eyes before they faded. He looked up at me and said, 'Puro amor, carnal, puro amor' (Only love, brother, only love). That's when I knew I had to change my lifestyle, or I would wind up like him - dead!"

Garcia, a former gang member who served more than 22 years in prison is now house manager for the Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers (TROSA) in Raleigh, NC. Garcia said substance abuse, poverty and low self-esteem contribute to young people joining gangs.

Tony Asión, director of the Public Safety Campaign for El Pueblo, Inc. and former criminal justice and gang intervention expert, co-presented a workshop at the Bridges to Employment conference entitled, "Success Stories: Leaving the Gang."

"We're not going to stop gangs and drugs," Garcia said. "Whether you have a disability or not, people around the world suffer due to lack of opportunity and low self-esteem. This contributes to problems that often in the US affects Latinos, and impacts their ability to get jobs."

Garcia, who is originally from Albuquerque, NM, lives and works in Durham, NC. He said that to fix his substance abuse problem, he had to learn to care about and "feel" for other people. "I had to change a lot of things about me. I didn't believe that a Chicano, 40-year-old could change. I realized that if I wanted to live, I had to grow up."

How to Prevent Your Kids From Joining Gangs

Asión, who is originally from Cuba, said that he works with people to train them about gangs, and, especially, about how to keep their children from joining gangs. "One way to assure the survival of your children is to start working with them when they are very young," Asión said. "Praise your kids, don't put them down. Listen to them, they have a right to be heard. Give them permission to make mistakes, get them involved in the decision-making processes that support the family, give them rules, invest in your child, and, most important - give them laughter. They need to be able to laugh."

Asión, who worked as a State Trooper in Delaware, said that everyone in the community needs to work together to support a gang-free environment. "Parents want to know how to get their kids out of gangs, or how to keep them from joining a gang in the first place. The first thing parents and school officials must realize is that they must accept the reality that gangs exist. Many of them are in denial. But, that won't work."

"We will never get rid of gangs, all we can do is control them, or try to," Asión said. "As far as our kids in school are concerned, we must get them involved in activities that interest them: social clubs, athletics, music, etc. It's up to the parents to get them involved, keep them active."

Both Garcia and Asión agreed that prison inmates, like people with disabilities, suffer from a lack of self-esteem and from a lack of jobs. "When you're in prison, you almost have to belong to a gang," Garcia said. "To get out of the gang, I had to stay out of prison. But, where can a gang member go? He has no education, no job skills. What job can he do? The solution offered by the government doesn't work either. They just try to keep them incarcerated until they get so old, they can't do anything anymore."

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