'As the mother of a brown boy…' theatre performance

The front cover of the book, 'Death and Disorder'. The bright red cover contrasts with the black and white image of a police officer, with their face shield down pointing a gun. The title is in black font, underneath a brief description in white font.

'Death and Disorder' Published

The front cover of the book, 'Death in the City', contains a black and white image of a car. Pink arrows point to bullet holes in the car rear window. The title and the authors' names, Melissa Benn and Ken Worpole, are in pink font on the cover.

'Death in the City' published

The cover of the booklet has the text sat diagonal in different directions. Alongside is a sketch of a skeleton wearing uniform.

'Deaths at Work: Accidents or Corporate Crime' published

'Dying on the Inside' published

'In the Care of the State?' published

'Lobbying from Below' by Mick Ryan is published

'The Right to Life' published

'Unlocking The Truth' published

20-52 play about Leon Patterson at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Angiolini Review report published

Four campaigners stand in the icy weather holding posters that represent gravestones of people who died from self-inflicted deaths in prisons. The image is dated 12 February 1985.

Appointment of two paid London workers

Benjamin Zephaniah’s ‘The one minutes of silence' poem

Brixton: spotlighting horrific prison conditions

Benjamin Zephaniah sat recording into a microphone his Radio 4 appeal.

Charity appeal on BBC Radio 4 with Benjamin Zephaniah

Charity appeal on BBC Radio 4 with Linton Kwesi Johnson

Corston Report published

Family reflections on Grenfell published

First 'lack of care' verdict at an inquest into a self-inflicted death

First INQUEST Family Forum

First INQUEST fringe meeting at Labour conference

First INQUEST Law magazine published

First INQUEST meeting

First UFFC procession

Gibraltar Shootings inquest

Gilly Singh Mundy dies

Harris Review report published

Red lights illuminate the St George's Hall Liverpool as the words 'Truth' and 'Justice' shine bright.

Hillsborough Football Disaster

Human Rights Act

INQUEST assists with Bishop James Jones's review of Hillsborough families' experiences

INQUEST Charitable Trust founded

INQUEST family support group starts up

Inquest into the Marchioness disaster begins

INQUEST is joint winner of the Human Rights Award

INQUEST Lawyers Group founded

INQUEST NORTHWEST set up

Learning from Death in Custody Inquests: A New Framework for Accountability

A black and white image of the front page of a Daily Mirror newspaper. The headline reads: 'Blind ship of death'

Marchioness Disaster

Non-means-tested legal aid for Article 2 inquests won

Seni's Law

Submission to Stephen Lawrence Inquiry

The Grenfell Tower fire

Our History

'Unlocking The Truth' published

In 2007, INQUEST published Unlocking the Truth: Families’ Experiences of the Investigation of Deaths in Custody.

It marked the first large-scale documentation of families' experiences when bereaved by a death in custody.

It was the second of two reports as part of a broader project, A Study of Families’ Experiences of Deaths That Require an Inquest , funded by a grant from the Nuffield Foundation.

The seven chapters cover:

Introduction
Social and political context
Immediately after the death
The investigation
The inquest
After the inquest
Key recommendations and concluding remarks

Here’s an excerpt from chapter 7:

Unlocking the truth about deaths in custody sheds light on the way we treat some of the most vulnerable men, women and children in society. It is important that we recognise, scrutinise, criticise and argue for reform of the way the state deals with deaths in custody as these processes are an indicator of the condition of its democracy.

Click below to download the book.

(PDF 1.3 MB)