Dr Jamie Bennett

Dr. Jamie Bennett has worked in prisons since 1996 and held a number of senior positions. He is currently group director for contracted prisons in HM Prison & Probation Service in England and Wales.

Previously he was Deputy Director for Security, Order and Counter Terrorism in HM Prison & Probation Service and Chief Operating Officer at the Youth Justice Board. Prior to this, he was Governor of HMP Long Lartin, a high security prison; HMP Grendon, the only prison to operate entirely as a series of therapeutic communities; HMP Springhill, an innovative open prison which helps men to prepare for their release and resettle into the community, and; HMP Morton Hall, a women’s prison working with a diverse international population.

Jamie has published over 100 articles and reviews covering topics including: prisons and the media, social inequality and imprisonment, prison-based therapy and the development of managerialism. He has produced eight books including: The Working Lives of Prison Managers: Global change, local cultures and individual agency in the late modern prison (Palgrave MacMillan 2015); The Penal System: An Introduction Sixth Edition (with Paul Cavadino, James Dignan and George Mair, Sage 2019); Prisoners on Prison Films  (with Victoria Knight, Palgrave MacMillan, 2021), and; Managing Prisons: Managerialism, Austerity and Moral Blindness (Palgrave MacMillan, 2024). 

He is a trustee of Bromley Trust and a member of the editorial boards of Prison Service Journal and Incarceration.

Selected Publications

Books

Bennett, J. (2024) Managing Prisons: Managerialism, Austerity and Moral Blindness London: Palgrave MacMillan

Bennett, J. and Knight, V. (2021) Prisoners on Prison Films London: Palgrave MacMillan

Cavadino, P., Dignan, J., Mair, G. and Bennett, J. (2019) The Penal System: An Introduction Sixth Edition London: Sage 2019

Jewkes, Y., Crewe, B. and Bennett, J. (eds) (2016) Handbook on Prisons London: Routledge

Bennett, J. (2015) The Working Lives of Prison Managers: Global change, local cultures and individual agency in the late modern prison London: Palgrave MacMillan

Crewe, B. and Bennett, J. (eds) (2011) The Prisoner London: Routledge

Jewkes, Y. and Bennett, J. (eds) (2008) Dictionary of Prisons and Punishment Cullompton: Willan

Bennett, J., Crewe, B. and Wahidin, A. (eds) (2008) Understanding Prison Staff Cullompton: Willan

Book Chapters

Bennett, J. (2024) Dirty Work and Beyond: Representations of Prison Officers in Films in Arnold, H., Maycock, M., Ricciardelli, R. (eds) Prison Officers: International Perspectives on Prison Work. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 141-162.

Bennett, J. (2021) “Let’s Make This Show Happen, People”: Black Mirror and Populist Punitiveness in Grubb, J. and Posick, C. (eds) Crime TV: Streaming Criminology in Popular Culture New York: New York University Press p.129-145

Bennett, J. (2019) Resisting Supermax: Rediscovering a Humane Approach to the Management of High Risk Prisoners in Lobel, J. and Scharff Smith, P. (eds.) Solitary Confinement: Effects, Practices, and Pathways toward Reform. Oxford: Oxford University Press p. 279-96

Bennett, J. (2018) Representations of prison escapes in films in Martin, T. and Chantraine, G. (Ed) Prison breaks: Toward a sociology of escape Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan p.117-33

Bennett, J. (2017) Documentaries about crime and criminal justice in Oxford Research Encyclopaedia on Crime and Criminal Justice (2017) available at http://criminology.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264079-e-52

Bennett, J. (2008) The man, the machine and the myth: Reconsidering Winston Churchill’s prison reforms in Johnston, H. (Ed) Punishment and control in historical perspective Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (2008) p.95-114

Articles

Bennett, J. (2023) ‘Scrutinising prisons through popular culture: Jimmy McGovern’s Time’. Prison Service Journal. 265: 6-15

Bennett, J. (2023) ‘Disrupting prison managerialism: Managing prisons in an age of pandemic’. Incarceration 4  https://doi.org/10.1177/26326663231169716

Bennett, J. & Smith, M. E. (2024) ‘Documenting prison therapy: Insider audience perspectives on The Work (2017)’. Crime, Media, Culture  https://doi.org/10.1177/17416590241229438               

Bennett, J. (2020) Against prison management in Prison Service Journal. No. 247: 4–1

Bennett, J. (2019) Reform, Resistance and Managerial Clawback: The Evolution of ‘Reform Prisons’ in England in The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice Vol 58 No 1. p. 45–64

Bennett, J. (2018) Hope, harmony and humanity: Creating a positive social climate in a democratic therapeutic community prison and the implications for penal practice (with Richard Shuker) in Journal of Criminal Psychology Vol.8 no.1 p.44-57

Bennett, J. (2018) Governing a therapeutic community prison in an age of managerialism in Therapeutic Communities: The International Journal of Therapeutic Communities vol.39 issue 1 p.14-25

Bennett, J. (2017) The potential of prison-based democratic therapeutic communities (with Richard Shuker) in International Journal of Prisoner Health 13(1) p.19-24

Bennett, J. (2014) Resisting the audit explosion: The art of prison inspection in Howard Journal of criminal justice 53:5 p.449-67 

Bennett, J. (2013) Race and power: The potential and limitations of prison-based democratic therapeutic communities in Race and Justice 3:2 p.130-43 

Bennett, J. (2006) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: The Media in Prison Films in The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Vol 45 No 2 p. 97–115

Bennett, J. (2006) The Woodsman: Saying the unsayable in Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media no.48 available at http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc48.2006/Woodsman/text.html

Bennett, J. (2006) ‘We might be locked up, but we’re not thick’: Rex Bloomstein’s Kids Behind Bars in Crime Media Culture vol.2 issue 3 p. 268-85

Other contributions

Secret Life of Prisons Podcast (2025)  https://secretlifeofprisons.libsyn.com/moral-blindness-jamie-bennett-and-andrew-morris

Locked Up Living Podcast (2023) https://lockedupliving.podbean.com/e/jamie-bennett-outstanding-insider-ethnographer-describes-prisons-during-trhe-pandemic/

Justice Focus Podcast (2020) https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/justicefocus/episodes/17-Dr-Jamie-Bennett---Against-Prison-Management-eiavpb/a-a2vrr7g