The Turn To Tara team continues its monthlong coverage of the tri-state's gun violence crisis with a closer look at the connection between gangs and gun crimes.

This week, the search for solutions takes us behind bars at some of the toughest prisons in America, where we sat down with a former leader of the Latin Kings and a former member of MS-13. They shared their ideas on ways to cut back on gun violence and gave us a harrowing glimpse into their ruthless world.

On an average year, local law enforcement estimates that gang members are responsible for anywhere between 30% to 40% of the murders and 40% to 49% of all shootings across the tri-state.

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Former MS-13 gang member Juan Gomez is currently serving 25 years to life for murder.

Gomez says he decided to join MS-13 after being attacked by a group of people on his way to work after school.

Shortly after, News 12 captured the high schooler's arrest in 2012 for the death of Leodan Bonilla. He maintains his innocence, saying he found out about Bonilla’s murder through News 12 at the time. Gomez says he is sharing his story so kids don't make the same mistakes that he did when he was growing up.

"Most of these crimes going on - especially with MS-13 - doesn't really involve adults, it involves teenagers. I wasn't even old enough to buy cigarettes or alcohol, so how am I sitting in the state prison right now doing 25 to life?" he says. "I was a high school kid. I'm 30 now, so it's like I threw my whole life away - and I don't see for what ... that's something that I think kids need to figure out and educate themselves on and listen."

Jose Colon, 43, is in Sing Sing serving 30 years to life for two murders.

He grew up in the South Bronx to a mother who was 14 and a father who left when he was 2. His mom later developed mental health issues.

"As a juvenile, I really didn't know how to deal with that, so I would internalize it and lash out," he says.

When he was 12, Colon was placed in foster care and ended up at the Pleasantville Cottage School in Westchester.

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He says this is where gang life was the only choice for survival.

Colon was not just a member of the Latin Kings - he claims he was the leader of the Bronx section of the gang, which was comprised of 3,000 people under his command.

"Deciding to join a gang...has more to do with feeling isolated, feeling by myself, and as a kid you are impressionable, you want to be able to fit in with the 'in crowd,'" he says. "They provide a narrative. It's about unity, it's about the Spanish culture. It's about sticking together."

In Colon's case, it was a sense of invincibility and desperation that brought him to a Bronx apartment building for an ill-fated robbery that left an elderly couple dead.

"The person who I was fearful of becoming was the person I became that day," he says. "I just knew that I did something that was wrong."

Colon says he wanted to share his story because he believes "that there's somebody out there who is probably dealing with the same things, they are still looking for those guns, those weapons, those knives, that make them want to feel superior, but in 10 years, it's not the person you want to be."

"The scope of the gang violence is huge. It's more widely spread than what we want to acknowledge. You see it in here on a daily basis, kids are coming in younger ages, and the only thing they are concerned about are their affiliations and the name tags and names that they carry," he says.

"The older generation is trying to find a way out, and it's like these kids, gang members, are actually trying to find a way in - and that's a problem," he says.

Both men were asked why they thought the gun violence problem is increasing and what can be done about it.

"I guess it's really the access to the guns, and most of these kids just don't care anymore," says Gomez.

Gomez says that being put into the juvenile system sooner, or even if his high school would have been more involved, could have helped solve the problem.

Colon agrees, saying there should be more after-school programs, community intervention, peer mentors and violence interrupters. He also says having a place for kids to report to instead of them being on the street would have also helped.

"Not really having those resources to find something to occupy my time with, as opposed to being idle, hanging out in the park or hanging out on a street corner, where violence is prone to happen." he says.