Agreed, Boodles! It's scary, and it could kill his parents -- I don't mean JW doing it -- but I wouldn't rule it out, of course -- but the worry, worry, worry that they would have every single minute that he was walking the streets might just do them in. They didn't handle a lot of things right with him, but heaven knows they surely tried.
And where would he live? Halfway house -- for how long? Then where? With his already-shattered & battered parents? I don't see his sister giving up her life for him to live with her, & she shouldn't, IMO.
He didn't half work before all this happened, so what would he do now? They don't usually give lifers a chance to take classes such as HVAC or electrical or gardening or construction, or, or, so he wouldn't get out with a trade, and I would give him about a 1 in 10,000 chance of finding & keeping a job.
I don't want to jinx anything by saying this, but if all he has is the cig butt business, I don't think it'll fly. I cannot imagine that the RPD and Willoughby (if he had been privy to it) weren't ab.so.lute.ly sure that they were standing on solid ground with the way they handled the butt evidence. No way they screwed that up.
Just roll over and go back to sleep, Jason Williford. You were having a strange sort of pipe dream which would be a nightmare for the rest of us.