Maybe jail will convince him to turn his li8fe around. That being said, if we were to fill the jails/prisons up, I’d rather fill them up with hard core/violent criminals, not petty thieves.
Non violent drug crimes are BS. Lots of ways to plant evidence, flip witnesses. Pretty hard to turn your life around with a record. Prison is not the cure for drug abuse. Physical and psychological abuse only makes these problems worse. Harm reduction is the best approach unless you personally gain by feeding off the prison system, legal system etc.
US has highest per capital incarceration rate in the world.