MOST people would not look forward to going to prison, but Emma Cassar does.

The 32-year-old is the general manager of the Victorian women’s prison system, which has offices in Deer Park.

“No day is ever the same, it keeps you wanting to go back,” she said.

Ms Cassar won the Marie Claire Young Business Women’s Award at the Telstra Business Women’s Awards ceremony on Thursday.

“It’s quite funny, the magazine is all about style and substance,” she said.

“So for my acceptance speech I said, ‘The irony is, prisons are so not stylish, but they have plenty of substance.’”

In her job, Ms Cassar oversees more than 240 employees and manages a budget of $22.3 million.

Despite her seniority, strangers always assume she is joking or do not believe it when she tells them what she does for a living.

“In 2009, prison staff are from all walks of life. Unlike the old model, you don’t have to be six foot six, bulky and male,” she said.

Ms Cassar worked as a forensic psychologist with prisoners before she became a custodial manager in a maximum security prison at the age of 26.

She is passionate about providing inmates with vocational training and rehabilitation programs to better their lives when they leave the system.

She once even came face to face with a male prisoner she had worked with, when she unknowingly visited a Melbourne café where he was employed.

The man, who had been in and out of jail for violent offences for over a decade, went after her and thanked her for helping him in prison.

“To see real changes in prisoners and give them the chance to change, is doing our bit for society,” Ms Cassar said.