Huge number of indigenous Australians in jail "catastrophe": report

The over-representation of Indigenous Australians in prisons around the country is a " catastrophe," said Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda in a report released on Friday.

The 2014 Social Justice and Native Title report written by Goodaday noted that indigenous Australians are 15 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-indigenous people.

The report suggests that the issue is the most important human rights dilemma facing the country today, as Gooda showed concern over the increasing number of Indigenous citizens in Australian jails.

Imprisonment rates of indigenous people has risen 57 percent since the turn of the century, meanwhile juvenile detention rates are 24 times higher for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders than for non-indigenous youth.

"That's just a catastrophe in anyone's language," Gooda said.

"We do better at keeping aboriginal people in prison than in school.

"I think that's a sad indictment when you think of kids getting their education in prison instead of at a high school."

The report also reveals that imprisonment rates have dangerous repercussions domestically and on indigenous communities, with hospitalization rates for indigenous women 31 times greater than that of non-indigenous women.

"We know people in houses or families where people have been put in jail are more likely to go to jail themselves," Gooda said.

"So these inter-generational effects start happening and building on each other and we're getting this cohort of people basically becoming institutionalized really young and that continues right through to adult age."

The report lists a series of recommendations, including regular revisions to Closing The Gap targets.

Closing The Gap is a campaign started in 2007 that aims to halve under-fives mortality rates within a decade.

It also implores the government to involve itself more in the process of indigenous affairs, following the introduction of annual parliamentary reports, initiated by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2008.

"We have a whole range of targets in Closing The Gap strategies and the one missing, in my view, is one on justice," Gooda said.

"Prime Minister Rudd agreed, Prime Minister Gillard continued and Prime Minister Abbott continues to give a report to Parliament every year on Closing The Gap targets and if you don't [include] incarceration there, you miss giving a focus to it.

"Even that prime ministerial report is a really strong form of accountability."