The age of Tanzimat was a turning point in the policies of the Ottoman state toward the younger subjects of the Empire. The state-led modernization culminated in a bureaucratic system modeled after the European states which made children and youth more visible within Ottoman society and state. This visibility was manifested by the establishment of state institutions to care for the children, which was a major departure from the state’s practices in the late eighteenth century. Using evidence from the sijillat (the shari‘a court registers) of the province of Tripoli, I argue that the Ottoman state was preoccupied with its social and political stability and economic interests and consequently turned a blind eye to ensure the “well-being” of its young Ottoman subjects. Iltizām contracts (tax farming) were annually executed between multazims (tax-farmers) and representatives of the state and were recorded in the sijillat. Between 1750 to1800, these contracts document an institutionalized practice by the state to incarcerate young and minor males associated with the families or clans of multazims to lure the latter to render payment of taxes. Multazims voluntarily turned in their male minor relatives to be incarcerated in government’s dungeons (in the citadels of Tripoli and Arwad) until commitment to collect taxes and render them to the state were fulfilled. Multazims agreed to the incarceration of their own minor sons, sons of their extended family members and clan, and children of inhabitants of nāhiyas where taxes were collected. Nuances to the state’s endeavor to maintain the ghibta (happiness) of children in cases pertaining to personal disputes, were completely absent in iltizām contracts. Minor males were thus caught between family and state; they were indeed Ottoman subjects but not always subjects of concern. This paper also attempts to explore what this forced incarceration meant for the agency of these minors. The ambiguity about the practice leaves many questions unanswered, namely the duration of incarceration and the proximity to the minors' family's residence. Incarceration of Tripolitan minors at the citadel of Arwad (modern-day Syria), must have limited family visitations taking into consideration the arduous journey between Tripoli and Arwad, even by today’s standards. Toward the last quarter of 18th-century, the registers demonstrate that this incarceration completely disappeared as a result of changes in the relations between multazims and the state though the fate of previously incarcerated minors remains unknown.