How to teach a woman who leaves a 16-month child home alone that this is wrong?

A 20-year-old woman (or should we say child?) who left her 16-month-old baby alone over five nights, only returning for a couple of hours at a time to feed her cereal, is threatened with jail.  Is this really appropriate?  She doesn't so much need punishment, as basically to be taught how to live.  If she is put in jail presumably someone else will have care of the child and there will be an added rift between them.  It seems to me that both her and the child should be placed somewhere where she can care for it under supervision and learn the joys as well as responsibilities of motherhood.