Giving life advice is hard. That being said, full time employment is not the only way to make money as a programmer. For example, if you freelance via website

Giving life advice is hard. That being said, full time employment is not the only way to make money as a programmer. For example, if you freelance via website like upwork.com, your criminal history is probably irrelevant. I imagine the same applies if you do consulting/freelancing in person. Companies probably don't do background checks on those. Another option is to start your own business, like you did in the past. If you want to learn to program, you can start by taking free udacity courses or complete some of their paid nanodegrees.