Most people who say this say it about murderers etc., basically despicable crimes, but I'm sure there are some who stretch it further. I'd like to add one point here. You're looking at it the wrong way. You don't rehabilitate people because they earned it or because you want them to have a good life, you do it because it improves society, and that means it improves your own life. You do it because it makes sense, it's the most logical/rational thing to do. Retributive justice is emotional justice, that's where you get the "deserve" in your statement.

Despite data showing that retribution makes things worse, you continue to indulge in your emotional needs, which I should note, means you're punishing society. You're putting your emotional desires above society, and that means you're making every other individuals life worse. When you put someone in our shitty prison system for 2 years, what exactly are you accomplishing? Nothing. In fact, you're making it more likely that person goes out and commits another crime after he gets out of prison and likely a worse crime, and you knew you were doing this because the data says so. If I am the victim of that crime, you enabled a crime to happen against me that might not have otherwise happened if you had made a better decision or taken more responsibility for your actions.

If you're going to throw someone in a cesspit for 2 years, you know they're not going to get any better and you know it will likely make them worse and they'll commit another crime and get sent back to prison, so why don't you take more responsibility and just sentence them to life? They robbed a bank but didn't hurt anyone? You might as well give them life in prison, because you're sending them into a system that basically means they'll be in and out their whole life anyways. You say life in prison is an unfair punishment? You're right, it is, but that's effectively what we're doing now anyways except it's masked by letting them out and committing more crimes, so you can sentence them again.