Gangs n' Guns

The gang violence continues unabated in Metro Vancouver and that includes our own little quiet city. It is estimated that there are about 100 gangs now operating in the area. 12 shootings in 16 days and everybody is getting nervous. There have already been innocents killed and it is a matter of time before it will happen again. Everyone is wringing their hands and wondering what to do. To date, there have been no innovative nor effective ideas put forth as to how to combat the gangs who are running wild in the streets and literally getting away with murder. So, I will offer a few suggestions.
Longer prison terms are unpopular because the prisons are already full. Also, I as a tax payer, do not relish the thought of putting a gangster in a luxury hotel (Canadian Prison) for the cost of $75,000.00 per year. So the solution will have to exclude jail time. There is no question that the root of the gang activity is the drug trade. The law has been become extremely lax toward drug production whether it be pot or crystal meth. So let us try something that has been used extremely successfully in another country, Singapore. It is called flogging. In that country, it is an extreme deterrent. A really good dose of pain usually is.
I propose that convicted growers and producers of drugs get flogged. A second conviction calls for double the strokes, etc. A crime committed with a firearm also gets the same treatment. Possession of an illegal firearm, same thing. Eventually these people will get the idea that the punishment will be extreme pain and they will probably avoid it. The incentives for a life of crime are very high, the deterrents very low. This must be reversed. It would be worth trying for a year or two and the follow-up statistics would determine if the policy should continue.
If protection of society and rehabilitation are paramount in the justice system, and those within it say that this is the case, here is one more idea. Build a penal colony, a reasonably comfortable and safe one, in some very remote part of the north or perhaps on an island. Drop ship supplies once a month. Let the inmates sort it out themselves. No guards. Rival gang members would be put into the same compound. They would either kill each other, or learn to get along in society like the rest of us have. This solution would be very cost effective also.
If this all sounds too redneck for you, what are your ideas? Obviously, what we are doing now is not working at all.