Seems to me he's in the same spot he is now, except materially less employable due to a prison sentence. Do you think your idea here really seems probable to work?
Would you like to be committed to a mental institution forever, in that circumstance?
So you get a bucket and put it under the dripping hole. The bucket doesn't fix the roof. The bucket will eventually fill up and you'll have to empty it down a drain before trying it again. Again and again. The bucket isn't solving anything, but would you be better off without the bucket? No, the bucket at least keeps your floor dry some of the time. That's better than nothing. Prison is a bucket. Prisons collect criminals for a while until they eventually fill up. But they're better than dumping all those criminals straight into the streets.