Your story is a great testimony to your character Booz.    I can tell of dozens about children in the same circumstance that did not fair so well. (actually most were in situation that were better than your own).  Either way, what kept you alive and going should be the stuff of treatment designs.    But what worked for you may be very different from the lives of others.

I think discipline is important in a good life.    For some it's taught, for some it's learned through observation or personal experience.
It would be great if prison prepared the criminal for a civil life when they get out, most don't, but the cost of punishment is making legislators rethink incarceration as the best choice.     

I would not dehumanize the 'parasite', but that doesn't  mean I'd condone stealing or crime either.    They are still people.   I have met a couple of 'bad to the bone' types that you just can't be generous with.    I didn't say 0 prisons.....