Corrective Services Minister Joe Berinson today announced the appointment of a new executive director of the Department of Corrective Services.
He is David Grant, 44, a senior consultant on corrective services to the New South Wales Premier's Department.
As executive director, Mr Grant will oversee the State's 14 prisons and 14 community correction centres stretching from Wyndham to Albany.
Mr Berinson said Mr Grant had an outstanding record in the corrective services field from both an operational and policy perspective.
"Mr Grant has had top level experience in both New South Wales and Victoria, and is well known nationally among correctional administrators," he said.
"He also has long standing connections with community-based corrections such as parole and home detention schemes, and will work hard with the State Government to reduce Western Australia's high imprisonment rate.
"With his broad experience and extensive knowledge of the criminal justice and prisons systems, I am confident that Mr Grant will make a significant contribution in WA."
In his position as a consultant to the New South Wales Government, Mr Grant was part of a taskforce to restructure the Corrective Services department.
As acting chairman of the NSW Corrective Service Commission in 1988, he also led that State's major review of prison and prisoner management.
In 1986 as Director of Prisons in Victoria he undertook a complete review of all operational aspects of Pentridge Prison Complex.
Earlier in his career, Mr Grant worked in the probation and parole fields, beginning as a parole officer in 1975.
Mr Grant also had recently completed a book on the modern history of prisons' policy and administration in New South Wales.
