Kay Melhuish died following neglect at HMP Eastwood Park. She had been at the prison for just 19 days.
Kay’s daughter Oceana tells @channel4news about who her mum was, how she likes to remember her and why women like her mum shouldn’t be in prison.
Link in bio to watch the full interview.
🚨 NEW REPORT: Built to Harm: how women’s prisons take lives
From 2018 to 2024, 59 people died in women’s prisons in England and Wales. Nearly 40% of those deaths were self-inflicted.
Each person has a family, friends, a community and people who care about them.
Built to Harm shows that if successive governments had acted on long-standing calls from campaigners, experts and years of evidence to end the imprisonment of women, many of these people would still be alive today.
Swipe to see some of their names, photos, and a stark reminder that the prison system failed them and their families.
🔗 Link in bio to the full report.
Our very own Jessica Pandian spoke on radio about how women's prisons have long been beyond reform and continue to harm people inside and their families on the outside.
Our latest report documents the people dying in women's prisons and makes the urgent case for investing in community support instead of imprisonment.
Link in bio to read!
NEW ON SKIN DEEP 💐 What is a memorial?
As of March 2026, 1,954 people have died in and following police contact in England and Wales since 1990. There is no official memorial or recognition of these numbers, nor the individual lives behind each one.
Britain is obsessed with memorialisation. Yet we have no physical, collective public memorial for victims of state violence. In this month’s online story, @suyinsays explores what that might look like.
“Visual reminders are important for survivors of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, which is calling for a permanent memorial,” writes Haynes. “There is a complexity inherent in building a public memorial that rallies against the harms of the state - it requires approval or funding from these very structures.”
“There’s a really important distinction between memorial as a noun, and memorialisation as a verb,” says INQUEST’s @inquest_org Naomi Oppenheim. People’s memorialisation practices can be varied and intimate - like wearing a specific pattern of clothing every day.
Interviewing families of victims of state violence about their own experiences with memorialisation, it is clear to Haynes that it is ultimately about keeping memories alive.
As Mohannad of the @justice4mouayed campaign says: “It’s been five years since the loss of Mouayed, and it doesn’t get easier. But we’ll never forget what happened”.
🔗 Read the full piece now in the ‘Reflections’ section of our website - link in bio.
Image credits:
1. ‘Preventable’, an installation created by Sînziana Cojocărescu (BÈZNĂ Theatre), as INQUEST’s artist in residence.
2. INQUEST archival materials related to family campaigning on deaths in state custody.
3. Mouayed Bashir, who died following police restraint in 2021. Image credit: Mohannad Bashir
4. A memorial banner commemorating Azelle Rodney, a footballer shot dead by police in 2005. Image credit: Susan Alexander
6. The National Covid Memorial Wall in Westminster. Image credit: Images George Rex
8. Memorial garden at the Museum of Homelessness in Finsbury Park, commemorating people who have died whilst homeless since October 2017. Image credit: Suyin Haynes
📰 Don't miss our April newsletter!
This month, we're sharing updates on
🟣 growing momentum for our No More Deaths campaign across Parliament, public inquiries and debates on major disasters such as Grenfell
🟣the deaths of over 50 young asylum seekers in the UK
🟣how missed opportunities in community mental health care led to the death of a woman in prison
🟣our brand new archive guides illuminating histories of state violence and neglect, and the powerful campaigns that have risen in response.
🎞Link in bio to read more.
Today, and every day, we remember the 97 people who were unlawfully killed in the Hillsborough Football Disaster.
As we extend our unwavering solidarity to the bereaved families, survivors and wider Hillsborough community, we reflect on their tireless fight to ensure that what happened that day, and in the cover up that followed, never happens again.
An update on our No More Deaths campaign
Over recent months, momentum has continued to build behind our call for a National Oversight Mechanism, a vital step to ensure public inquiry and inquest recommendations lead to life‑saving changes.
🟠 Scrutiny and accountability in Parliament
Our Policy and Parliamentary Manager, Rosanna Ellul, gave evidence to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, emphasising why independent monitoring, transparent oversight, and proper follow‑up are essential to making sure recommendations are not ignored.
🟠 Making sure disasters like Grenfell are never repeated
During the Grenfell Tower Annual Report debate, the Secretary of State for Housing spoke about Government work to establish a National Oversight Mechanism so that inquiry recommendations “do not just sit on shelves, but get implemented” to improve public services.
MPs Joe Powell, Florence Eshalomi, and Andy Slaughter also highlighted the need for full transparency, accountability and meaningful change following the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
🟠 Ending preventable online harms
Zöe Franklin MP raised concerns following a constituent’s inquest and evidence from the @mollyrosefoundation showing coroners have made recommendations to Government departments in at least 65 similar cases. She illustrated the slow progress to implement change and asked for the Prime Minister’s support for a National Oversight Mechanism to save lives.
🟠 Learning lessons from Covid‑19
As the UK Covid‑19 Inquiry held its final public hearings, Anna Morris KC, on behalf of bereaved families, called for the Inquiry Chair to support the creation of a National Oversight Mechanism to ensure changes are actually implemented.
A National Oversight Mechanism would provide the accountability needed to prevent future deaths. It is a critical step towards justice, transparency, and meaningful system change.
👉 Take action and support the campaign
Link in bio
A whistle stop tour through our archive, with our resident historian, Naomi...
From histories of state violence to the people that fought back - we have just published research guides tracing key moments from INQUEST’s archive.
Built as stand‑alone tools and resources for anyone who wants to dig deeper - learn more about family-led campaigning, coronial systems, policing, prisons and mental health care through our digital archive.
The special collections reading room there is open to all. Come explore.
Shout out to our amazing team of volunteers who spent over 6 months researching in our archive at @bishopsgateinstitute
🔗history.inquest.org.uk/research-guides
Reel created by @jessie_james997
2025 was a year of significant pressure, with rising referrals, rising numbers of deaths in detention and, alongside many allies in the voluntary sector, constrained resources. However, it was also a year of remarkable impact.
INQUEST has now published Families at the Centre: A Look Back at 2025, our new impact report showcasing a year of campaigning, advocacy, support, and creative approaches that reached far beyond traditional justice spaces.
This report shows the power of families leading the fight for truth, justice and accountability.
Read the report: .uk/about-us/our-impact/
📰 In our March newsletter, we share updates on
🟣 ongoing delays to Hillsborough Law
🟣our coalition of human rights groups challenging the erosion of police accountability
🟣drug-related deaths in prison
🟣the government's latest response to the Grenfell Inquiry
Link in bio to read more!
🚨 Human rights groups raise alarm over Government plans for policing
We, alongside 10 other human rights groups are calling on the Home Secretary to reconsider her plans that will weaken the public’s ability to scrutinise police conduct.
At a time when use of force is rising, deaths following police contact continue, and trust in policing is at crisis point, these proposals move in entirely the wrong direction.
Following a rapid review into two landmark Supreme Court rulings, the Government plans to:
🟣 Overturn the W80 judgment, raising the threshold for challenging a police officer’s use of force and dramatically reducing the number of cases that reach misconduct hearings.
🟣 Consult on changing the Maughan ruling, making it harder for inquests to reach unlawful killing conclusions - limiting accountability not only in police‑related deaths, but across other critical areas of state responsibility.
The Government’s rationale for these sweeping changes lacks evidence, ignores the experiences of bereaved families, and will open the door to further racism and discrimination by the police.
Speaking to the Guardian, Mohannad Bashir, whose brother died after being restrained by Gwent police, against whom no wrongdoing was found, said: “Mouayed’s death continues to have a huge impact on me and my family but the system favours the police more than bereaved families.”
Our director Deborah Coles, said: “Changing the law to please the police lobby – at the expense of bereaved people and victims – will simply advance the culture of impunity.
This letter reflects our dismay at the government’s plans to weaken police accountability in the face of well-documented misogyny, racism and violence.”
Link in bio to read more
Behind every preventable death is a family seeking answers.
INQUEST supports bereaved families through and after the inquest process, working collectively for justice and systemic change.
Join us for the first event in our Listen at Lunch webinar series, where you’ll hear from bereaved families and our team about why this work is vital, and how together we can help safeguard lives and build better systems.
📅 18 March, 12–1pm (online)
🔗 Register via the link in bio.
