Mass Incarceration

Abstract

This chapter examines the campaign of mass incarceration. This is done with a view to understanding why and how it occurred, how it was related to the mass killings of the same period, and what its consequences were for those detained. It argues that the campaign had three defining features: it was a highly organized program that entailed detailed planning and coordination at the national level; it was initiated and carried out by the army leadership and more specifically Suharto; and it bore striking similarities to campaigns of mass internment in other authoritarian contexts. The chapter also contends that mass incarceration and mass killing were integrally related in two ways: first, in the sense that most of those eventually killed were first detained, and second, that rates of long-term imprisonment were lower where the rates of killing were highest. Finally, it makes the case that in almost every respect, the campaign of mass incarceration was emblematic of the Suharto regime's hypermilitarism and obsession with “order.”