Australian governments must listen to indigenous solutions to counter the over-incarceration "crisis point" in the nation's jails, Labor says.
Indigenous Labor senator Pat Dodson says the findings of an Australian Law Reform Commission report - including that indigenous women are 21.2 times more likely to go to jail than non-indigenous women - have to be a wake-up call.
"It's making mothers who are often subject to domestic violence become the victims of incarceration," Senator Dodson told ABC radio on Thursday.
"This is a real indictment upon us. This is a wake-up call for the nation and the governments of the nation to start to do something that's required."
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said addressing indigenous over-incarceration was a big issue for all Australian governments and would be included in the refreshed Closing the Gap agenda.
"A huge part of this is ensuring we break the cycle of prison-release-back to prison," he told ABC radio.
"The key thing is early intervention."
The findings in the report, tabled in parliament on Wednesday, were labelled a "national crisis" by the Law Council of Australia.
It found indigenous Australians were 12.5 times more likely to be in jail than non-indigenous people.
The commission made 35 recommendations to counter the trends, including promoting rehabilitation programs as well as indigenous consultation and engagement.
Senator Dodson said state and territory governments were not listening to solutions coming from the indigenous community.
"The communities are almost in despair by the lack of action from all governments," he said.
"You have to find cultural imperatives that will work, rather than just the punitive systems that we've been constantly meting out to the first nations people."
Justice reinvestment was one recommendation Labor has called to be incorporated into the Closing the Gap strategy.
"It's about not asking for more money, but using the money that's already allocated in the system to go to other purposes that are preventative and restorative of people's activities," Senator Dodson said.
"That's what justice reinvestment is about."
MPs have urged the government to adopt the recommendations.
"The cycle of incarceration will continue devastating families and communities if we do not remodel our approach to criminal justice," Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT chief executive Lesley Turner said.
Law Council of Australia president Morry Bailes said the report's recommendations offered "a renewed roadmap" to decrease over-incarceration.
