Can you say more about this? It sounds like you think that's normal in your community, to think that way. That's not how I hear the people around me talking about prison. I think most of us would support a candidate who talked about rehabilitation.
I worry that by trotting out this old meme as if it were an permanent fixture of our political system that you are actually strengthening it.
People who are liberal on sentencing get angry if short sentences are handed down in rape or financial crime cases.
This is not a contradiction or indication of hypocrisy.
Obv not all Boomers are this way - to be clear, just way too many.
Public opinion is swayed at a very superficial level. Emotional stories about convicts going free or people getting killed are always going to have a more substantial impact. Especially compared to mundane stores on successful prison reform -- 10% shorter prison sentences? 5% higher rehab rate? This guy who murdered people has a stable construction job now? Ignore the ideology, I think the optics of prison reform give us this unequal incentive structure.