Biography
Tony Hassall is an international criminal justice and corrections consultant with more than 35 years’ experience across prison management, probation, rehabilitation, and system-wide reform. He has held senior leadership roles including Governor of Holloway Prison, Area Manager, a senior civil service role with responsibility for multiple prisons in the Yorkshire and Humberside Region, and Corrective Services Commissioner for Western Australia, providing him with deep operational, strategic, and policy-level insight into complex custodial systems. Tony works as an expert consultant for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), supporting prison and probation reform in fragile, conflict-affected, and resource-constrained environments. His recent work spans Ukraine, Ghana, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Iraq, the Maldives, and other jurisdictions, with a focus on corruption risk management, dynamic security, leadership development, rehabilitation and reintegration, and the management of high-risk and violent extremist prisoners.
Earlier in his international career, Tony served as Regional Prison System Adviser for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with responsibility for supporting prison systems across Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Thailand, and Papua New Guinea. In this role, he worked closely with national authorities on detention standards, humane treatment, prison management, and compliance with international humanitarian and human rights law.
Tony also served as Chief Operating Officer for Immigration in Australia, with responsibility for the strategic and operational leadership of the national immigration detention network. He led the rapid expansion of detention services during a period of sustained pressure, overseeing large, complex custodial and community-based environments while managing a national workforce of more than 2,500 staff. The role required balancing security, operational performance, and the humane treatment of people in detention, alongside close engagement with government, regulators, and civil society. His work focused on strengthening governance, managing risk, and embedding lawful, ethical, and well-governed detention practice in highly sensitive and politically exposed settings.
He brings a strong academic and professional foundation to his work. Tony holds qualifications in Social Science, alongside a degree-level qualification in Business Administration from the Melbourne Institute of Technology, and further qualifications in Public Finance from the Australian Institute of Management. This background underpins his ability to integrate operational practice with organisational leadership, governance, and financial accountability.
He has led and contributed to major international guidance and training programmes aligned with UN standards, including the Nelson Mandela Rules, the Bangkok Rules, and UNODC frameworks on integrity, dynamic security, and Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR). His work is characterised by a strong emphasis on practical implementation, ensuring reforms are realistic, sustainable, and grounded in operational reality.
Tony is known for his collaborative and pragmatic approach, working closely with senior officials, practitioners, and international partners to co-design reforms that strengthen leadership, improve institutional integrity, and enhance rehabilitation outcomes.
