One of the problems with a question like this, and I too believe it will be more of a discussion that a question, is that you will hear people like me saying that I believe liberals would tend to favor "bleeding heart" judges and then liberals coming in and saying how they would never do that, how great they are, and then conservatives coming in with their point of view basically saying similar things.
I have a bachelor's degree in Government & Politics from the University of MD and was taught to approach matters of this type in a more objective manner than those who will tell you how great one side is over the other.
Here is one of the best sites I have seen for an objective definitive of how liberals and conservatives feel on a variety of issues.
BalancedPolitics.org - Political Ideology Definitions
If you go down the list, you will see that liberals tend to stress the rights of defendants, oppose the death penalty, favor illegal aliens, etc. Conservatives like stiff penalties for offenders, "three strikes you're out" laws and tend to favor jail over other measures.
Of course the matter can be looked at using labels other than liberal and conservative. Victims of crime and their families tend to desire heavier sentences for defendants that those who are related to the defendant. That should be obvious.
People who are "against the sytem" in one way or another would also favor the defendant and therefore would favor light sentences. You will see alot of nasty comments about the police on this site, naturally these people tend to put little faith in the police and would therefore tend to side with those who are accused of crimes by police.
There are also those who believe that the penal system is not effective in deterring, reducing or preventing crime and that other measures, such as counseling, community service or life skills training, should, to one degree or another, replace jails.
While this approach certainly would seem to have some merit, jails by their very nature prevent people from causing havoc in society and there are certainly those who need incarceration to keep them out of trouble. I was a parole/probation officer and supervised several offenders who fell into this category. They could simply not stay out of trouble when released from jail.
The important thing to me is that, in my experience and training, most people feel that judges tend to be too lenient with criminals. This is especially true when someone on probation, parole, or with a long record, causes further harm by committing new crimes. Then there is an outcry to "put 'em away" and such sentiments have led to such things as the "three strikes you're out" laws.
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