It is important to mention that this information was provided by the Department of Justice, and is based, I believe, on an Angus-Reid poll. Such polls are few and far between, which is why we drew it to your attention. It is often said that the general public does not support the use of conditional sentences.
A few polls have shown that the public is in fact relatively supportive of conditional sentencing, provided it is not used for certain offences, especially serious violent crimes against children. Only a handful, including this one, reveal this attitude. There really are not any others. In general, people support conditional sentencing. This document refers to a study that shows that where people have been educated as to what conditional sentencing entails, they support its use even for violent crimes.
This is not insignificant, because we know that the general public struggles to grasp the ins and outs of sentencing. We can therefore assume that if these measures are misunderstood by the public, people will tend to underestimate how effective they are. If the public had a greater understanding, then I imagine that support levels for these measures would be even higher.