High level of returns to NSW prisons

The number of offenders returning to prison across NSW continues to be higher than the national average, the state's auditor-general has found.

The report into the state's Law, Order and Emergency Services, released on Tuesday, found that in 2011-12 more than 42 per cent of people released from prison two years earlier had returned to jail.

"The state's rate of return to prison continues to be higher than the national average (of 39.3 per cent)," the report states.

While prisoners are locked up, the report also found almost one-third of those subjected to targeted drug samples tested positive.

This has prompted the auditor-general to call on Corrective Services to examine how prisoners continue to access drugs and to increase its efforts to minimise their availability.

He also recommended that Corrective Services develop a way to compare the costs of operating private and public correctional centres.

The report states that the cost per prisoner per day had fallen from $241 in 2007-08 to $212 in 2011-11.

But despite a 2009 upper house inquiry into prison privatisation, which recommended Corrective Services develop a way to compare costs within the two sectors, the report says the numbers still weren't provided.

"An effort should be made to `strip out' costs not incurred in privately run centres to enable a comparison," the report states.

"This would be useful in allowing Corrective Services to benchmark itself against the privately run facilities."

In the first full year since the controversial changes to the police force's death and disability scheme, the report found the payments had almost halved.

Meanwhile bushfires over December and January doubled the costs of natural disasters, with emergency services spending almost $110 million in 2012-13, compared to $52.7 million the previous year.

In good news, the report states there has been a downward trend in crime across the state since 2008 in most categories - better than national figures.