The ‘Bennett Award’ for outstanding article of the year is in its eighth year and was renamed in 2020 in honour of our former editor of seventeen years – Dr Jamie Bennett.
The Prison Service Journal editorial board reviewed a shortlist of articles in 2024. The board weighed each article by its merit. We have endeavored to make our judgement as unbiased and objective as possible. In so doing, we chose the article that best reflected the aims of the PSJ which is to inform theory and practice.
The Editorial board selected an article from the 272 special issue: Knowledge Equity in Carceral Research. All authors were introduced by first name only in this edition to ensure all authors receive full and equal credit or their contributions.
The winning article for our 2024 annual Bennett Award is: ‘Exploring Friendships behind Prison Walls through a Knowledge Equity Approach’. This article was co-written by Donna a Research Fellow in Public Health at the University of Southampton and Marc the CEO of Fair Justice, an organisation striving for a fairer criminal justice system. The article provides an insight into prison friendships, illuminating the similarities and differences in how these friendships function compared to friendships beyond the prison gate.
The 2025 Bennett award shortlist will be agreed in the autumn this year. If you would like to nominate an article from the 2025 editions, please send your nominations to prisonservicejournal@crimeandjustice.gov.uk
