Aboriginal inmates '22pc and rising' of prison population

The Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health says new research is urgently needed to address the worsening rate of Indigenous incarceration.

The centre says Aboriginal prisoners represented 22 per cent of the national prison population in 2005, and the incarceration rate has grown by 12 per cent since then.

In the Northern Territory 80 per cent of all prisoners are Aboriginal and this rate is also rising, particularly amongst women.

The Centre's Mick Gooda says a prisoner health round-table in Canberra today aims to find new ways to keep Indigenous people out of prison.