In 1851 and again in 1918–19 British officials assigned to the Ottoman Empire conducted extensive inspections of the empire's prisons and drew up detailed reports of what they found. Notwithstanding their imperialist and orientalist undertones, these reports describe Ottoman prisons as being in a serious state of disrepair. Stratford Canning, the famous British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, commissioned the 1851 inspections with the intent to assist the Ottomans in reforming their criminal justice system. He ordered British Foreign Office representatives stationed throughout the empire to undertake a comprehensive inspection of prisons in order to ascertain their deficiencies and to report back to him. Canning justified prison improvement and inspection according to civilisational principles:

The inspection questionnaire consisted of thirty questions requesting a variety of information on many aspects of the empire's prisons in every major urban centre. Questions included the number of prisoners, prison dimensions and layout, living conditions, hygiene and health concerns, rations, prison routines, prison cadre conduct, and governmental funding. The comprehensive nature of the questionnaire is quite impressive, as are the reports that were subsequently generated, which overwhelmingly demonstrate the poor state of Ottoman prison conditions.