The comparative research on the topic will be particulary promising because those functions are grounded in a unique macro-control system framed to promote concurrently, first, the mobilization of the Chinese people in building a strong socialist society and, second, the management of broadly defined deviance. Observation of three correctional institutions is used to lend substance to the analysis. Because of the great difficulties to be overcome before valid comparative research can be accomplished, the paper is limited to justifying advocacy of future research on the implications of incarceration patterns in the People's Republic. (Publisher abstract)