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X A Content Norton Digital Resources E Everyday Sociology Blog: Becomin chapter o DISCUSSIon COLLAPSE As I read Ferris and Stein's discussion of social control and deviance, I was struck by the fact that the United States incarcerates more people than any nation in history. According to the World Prison Brief, roughly 1.9 million people were behind bars in 2024, a rate of 531 per 100,000 residents-more than quadruple the rate in most peer democracies (World P2 pn Brief). Several structural and historical forces help explain this outlier status. First, the "tough-on-crime" political climate that emerged in the 1970s, especially the War on Drugs, produced a cascade of punitive legislation. Ferris and Stein note that mandatory minimum sentences and three-strikes laws shifted discretion from judges to legislators, dramatically lengthening sentences for non-violent offenses (Ferris and Stein 2024). The U.S. Sentencing Commission reports that by 2023, almost half of federal prisoners were serving mandatory minimums. Second, privatization created financial incentives to keep prison beds full; private corrections corporations spend millions lobbying for policies that expand incarceration (Ferris and Stein 273). Third, racialized policing and sentencing concentrate punishment in poor Black and Latino neighborhoods. As the authors emphasize, incarceration functions as a modern tool of social stratification, removing entire cohorts of men from the labor market and civic life (Ferris and Stein 279). Sociologically, these patterns illustrate how power shapes definitions of deviance: behaviors common across social classes become criminalized only when committed by marginalized groups. Countries that invest more in social safety nets and treat drug use as a public-health issue, such as Portugal or Germany, show dramatically lower imprisonment rates. Until the United States addresses the root inequalities that Ferris and Stein describe-poverty, racism, and profit-driven politics-its prisons will likely remain crowded. Works Cited Ferris, Kerry, and Jill Stein. The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. 9th ed., W. W. Norton, 2024. Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research. "Highest to Lowest - Prison Population Rate." World Prison Brief, 2024, www.prisonstudies.org. United States Sentencing Commission. "Mandatory Minimum Penalties Quick Facts." 2023, www.ussc.gov. Reply