In the Care of the State? Was launched on Thursday 21 July 2005 in Parliament to great acclaim

Baroness Vivien Stern said: "Deborah Coles and Barry Goldson have made an enormous contribution to human rights. Deborah Coles is a national treasure. A campaigning olympic champion. She is passionate, determined and completely and totally steely. Yet she is always polite and never fails to leave people with guilt regarding what they could have done but haven’t."

The event was attended by the families of some of the 28 children who had died in custody since 1990 at the time of the book launch.

Yvonne Scholes, mother of Joseph Scholes who died in Stoke Heath Young Offender Institution said: "In the Care of the State blasts a hole through the myths perpetuated by state agents and lays bare in all its awfulness the suffering of our children in their final days of life...It brings to the fore the callous disregard shown to bereaved families following the death of their child and it reiterates the call for a full public inquiry into Joseph's death."