More indigenous prisoners in NSW: report

Indigenous people in NSW are less likely to be arrested for violent crimes today than 15 years ago - but a greater number are currently behind bars.

Indigenous arrest rates in NSW for violent offences and property crime have dropped sharply in the past decade and a half, the state's crime statistics body has found.

But the number of indigenous people behind bars has more than doubled between 2001 and 2015, according to twin reports released by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research on Wednesday.

BOCSAR director Don Weatherburn says the rise in the indigenous imprisonment rate is due in part to courts becoming more willing to imprison convicted offenders and a higher rate of bail refusal.