WKS is a rare disease as it is....so not often diagnosed.  My mother was very fortuntate that her attending physician was Romanian...and curious as to why she never remembered who he was from one minute to the next..so he did his research and she showed all the symptoms..and then an MRI confirmed atrophy of the brain. 

 

Your father is an alcoholic and that in and of itself is its own disease.  He will not be able to control his obsession with alcohol and once he gets it he will crave more.  That is the nature of the illness so giving him the freedom to obtain alcohol will not do him any favors.  At least in jail, he has no  access and without alcohol the WKS may stop progressing.  With thiamine he can improve.  It doesn't sound like your father is interested in recovering from alcoholism but AA can certainly help him if he is willing.  Because my mother was so seriously ill, she went 3 months without alcohol and she really had no access between the nursing home and then the assisted living.  Then the apathy that came with Korsakoff's worked in our favor because she never attempted to obtain any though she certainly could have.  She also stopped smoking...again not by will power just lack of access. 

 

Once my mother was discharged from the hospital and no longer in the care of our Romanian doctor I had to educate her caregivers.  I presented them with articles on WKS like this one...http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Wernicke-Korsakoff-syndrome.html.  It is rare and many have not  heard of it.  Since its usually only given about one sentence as a possible result of alcholism...if that....while some may have heard of it they certainly had no idea how to diagnose or treat.  So if they can put their egos aside..and they may not do so in front of you...giving them the literature may at least spark their curiousity.