Joe Prater currently serves as Deputy Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety’s Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice, which has a current annual operating budget of $1.6 billion, a staff of over 21,000, and which maintains custody and supervision for over 130,000 adult and juvenile offenders.  In this position, he is responsible for representing the Chief Deputy Secretary’s Office in budget, fiscal, and legislative matters, and has direct oversight responsibility for the division’s inmate health care, engineering, and inmate grievance resolution operations.