Tony Hassall was appointed Western Australia's corrective services commissioner and deputy director general of the Department of Justice. Commissioner Hassall had been the acting commissioner since March 2017 and was officially appointed to the role in May 2018 following a publicly advertised recruitment campaign and rigorous selection process. He will retire from the role in early December 2020, after more than four decades working in corrective services.
Commissioner Hassall spent 30 years in corrective services across the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. He started his career in England as a prison officer and rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the governor of one of the largest prisons in Europe where he led a significant reform agenda. He later became area manager for Yorkshire and Humberside, overseeing 12 prisons and more than 9,000 prisoners. Commissioner Hassall also studied reform and change with a leading US think-tank, and was part of the team that led the initial work to transform the delivery of primary and mental health offender services in the United Kingdom.
After moving to Australia 10 years ago, Commissioner Hassall oversaw the expansion of Australia's immigration detention network. He joined the then Department of Corrective Services in 2015 as executive director of operational support and was made deputy commissioner, regulation and operational services in 2016.
