Push to cut indigenous incarceration rate

A new campaign, being launched today, wants state and territory governments to step up and focus on prevention and early intervention strategies.

Aboriginal groups want to cut the over-representation of indigenous people in Australian jails within a generation.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights organisation (ANTaR) and others will on Thursday launch a `Change the Record' campaign to address the indigenous incarceration rate, which has risen by 88 per cent in the past decade.

"We are spending more and more on prisons and not enough on initiatives that can prevent crime in the first place," ANTaR spokesman Shane Duffy said in a statement.

"It's time for national action."