The Bennett Award for outstanding article of the year is in its ninth year.
The Prison Service Journal editorial board reviewed a shortlist of articles published in 2025. 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 are to present good quality, evidence-informed, and practice-focused publications to encourage discussion and debate on topics at the forefront of research, policy, and practice.
The winning article for 2025, published in edition 279, is Creating the Roots of Hope: Using art to support well-being in prison, written by Mark Jones (Director of Higher Plain Research and Education Ltd). The article uses the CHIME (Connected, Hope, Identity, Meaning, and Empowerment) recovery model to reflect on the experiences of, and impact on, those involved in Creative Roots, an arts project in HMP/YOI Parc.
The winner received a certificate, and a trophy designed and made by prisoners at HMP Channings Wood.
The 2026 Bennett award shortlist will be agreed in the autumn this year. If you would like to nominate an article from the 2026 editions, please send your nominations to prisonservicejournal@crimeandjustice.org.uk
