The rate of Indigenous incarceration has risen nationally, new data from the Productivity Commission has revealed.

The latest data, which has coincided with several jurisdictions introducing laws which experts say will see an increase in incarceration without improving community safety, showed an average of 14,820 First Nations adults were incarcerated on an average day in 2023-24—more than 34 per cent of the total prison population.

Corrective services across the country now costs the taxpayer more than six billion dollars annually, up more than three per cent from the last financial year.

"Jailing is failing all Australians," Justice Reform Initiative Executive Director Dr Mindy Sotiri said.

"Our over-reliance on prisons costs taxpayers an exorbitant amount. At the same time, all of the evidence shows that prisons don't work to make communities safer; they don't work to prevent reoffending, and they also cause great harm."

Data from New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof indicates Australia now incarcerates First Nations adults at more than three-and-a-half times the rate of Black South Africans during apartheid.

Only the ACT and Victoria saw minor reductions in the rate of Indigenous incarceration in the last year, with significant increases across all other jurisdictions.

Western Australia now imprisons First Nations adults at a rate of 3,994.5 per 100,000, almost 22 times the rate of non-Indigenous adults. This is a rate increase of over 510 per 100,000 adults in 12 months.

On an average day, 3,132 Indigenous people were behind bars, 46 more than 2022-23.

The Northern Territory imprisons 3,706 per 100,000 Indigenous adults on an average day - 20 times the rate of non-Indigenous prisoners. It now sees more than 1 per cent of its entire population behind bars, giving it the second highest incarceration rate in the world, behind only El Salvador.

88.3 per cent of all prisoners in the NT are Indigenous.

The new CLP government has implemented a number of new laws which human rights and legal experts have condemned as punitive and only likely to see increased numbers of adults and children behind bars.

The data showed a 28 per cent increase in prison numbers in the last five years, which doesn't include the latest explosion of jailed people across the Territory since the CLP came into office, which has been described as having a devastating impact on Aboriginal communities.

It caused NATSILS' chair Karly Warne to note: "The new Chief Minister has been elected on a platform to reduce crime, but her punitive agenda will do the exact opposite."

The data comes less than a week after data showed the number of Indigenous children in prison was also rising as states enact laws which will see further young people behind bars.

The conversation surrounding the crisis in domestic violence - which has continued to see First Nations women die at disproportionate rates at the hands of their partners (both Indigenous and non-Indigenous) - and a need to move away from jailing people on mass, continues to reverberate, as the cost of incarceration rises.

The data revealed the majority of prisoners released returned to jail within two years highlighting a need for stronger rehabilitation programs.

Dr Sotiri said the latest moves by governments in the NT and Queensland were expensive, failed to make communities safer and only led to more people being jailed.

"'Tough-on-crime' rhetoric and policy simply drive more people through a revolving door in and out of the criminal justice system," she said.

"We need to invest in evidence-based programs outside of prison that offer proven results in improving community safety."