Barton is an underrated footballer who has only recently reached 50% of the form that he's capable of. He's a good player with good talent, all we've seen is an average player with flashes of decent play. There are plenty of central midfielders in the Premiership who lack the ability or the confidence to pass forwards - Barton is not one of them, and I like that about him.
Keep him, stick by him. If he steps out of line one more time, then cut lose, because if a few months in jail doesnt make him realise how lucky he is to be a professional footballer playing for our club, than nothing will. Hopefully he'll come out of this a better person.
The jail term isnt a massive deal from a footballing point of view. At most, he'll miss the first 3 or so months of the new season, which is merely a typical moderately lengthy pre-season injury that plenty of players pick up. The trouble is, he'll have missed pre season yet again, which was probably the reason for his overall poor form this season just gone for us, but if he comes back the same player as he has been under Keegan, then I'll have no complaints.