As youth detention remains a critical issue across the country, a key First Nations justice body say the New South Wales government is equipped with the tools to lower incarceration rates for Indigenous people and is now making steps in the right direction.

Just Reinvest NSW chief executive and Gamillaroi man Geoffrey Winters believes the state New is approaching a genuine shift towards a community-driven approach.

In October the Just Reinvest NSW report, Redefining Reinvestment – An Opportunity for Aboriginal communities and government to co-design justice reinvestment in NSW, canvassed positions and concerns within Mt Druitt, Moree and Bourke, areas already delivering justice reinvestment.

A resulting JRNSW-led forum last month saw community leaders and government representatives meet to refine the framework going forward.

Bourke's place-based strategy Maranguka, meaning 'caring for others' in Ngemba language, is flagged to be the model across the board.

"Bourke has always been the pioneer. They're what reinvestment looks like, and other communities around the country, as they always have done, we'll continue to look for but look to Bourke as the example of how you can do justice reinvestment,' Mr Winters said.

Mr Winters finds the government's willingness to genuinely co-design with the community, leaving healthy amounts of space for self-determination, encouraging.

Community leaders and key government officials at the forum discussed where redeployment of funds left by annual resource reduction, or efficiency dividend, could be used locally.

The conversations included input from deputy secretaries to the NSW Department of Communities and Justice and Aboriginal Affairs Brendan Thomas and Shane Hamilton, alongside youth justice and police representatives.

Mr Winters welcomed a proposal from Mr Thomas to reconvene after evaluating data to inform a way forward.

"What I would say the New South Wales Government has been really good at is acknowledging that existing evaluation and reporting frameworks probably don't support the ambitions of place-based community led projects," Mr Winters said.

"They've basically said to us, why don't you help us understand this and redesign what an evaluation framework might look like? New South Wales Treasury is very much on that journey."

JRNSW Moree office manager Carol French said greater community control is crucial, not only to curb waste from delivery managed by those with limited understanding of local concerns, but also for the benefit of mob in the town.

She believes justice reinvestment taken out of the hands of the community does "more harm than good".

"(At the forum) we had some good conversations, in giving them an understanding from an Aboriginal person's point of view of just how (current) policies and frameworks or affects us," she said.

"As an Aboriginal person, I think we are the best ones to say how things should be done.

"They actually agreed to come to the table and listen to us. I think there were really some genuine conversations."

As a representative for Mt Druitt, LinkUp NSW Aboriginal Corporation chair Lizzie May expressed a similar view.

Her organisation operates in assisting Aboriginal people impacted by past government policy and shedding light on how a lack of cultural understanding can slip into being invasive practice.

"Don't put it in a government team because it's not working," she said.

"Don't take it and put it into workers in a non-Aboriginal organisation because we don't feel welcomed. We don't access them.

"It will save you money in the long run. Reinvest in us."

On a national level, Labor's first federal budget in over a decade included $81 million toward justice reinvestment.

Mr Winters described the move as an "unknown entity, because this is their first time stepping into that space".

With the lack of precedence could come opportunity.

"My two impressions are one; they're genuinely grappling with how they get money out the door in a way that's appropriate, given the aims and objectives of this project," he said.

"Two; it seems they have limited to zero appetite to be having a controlling, you know, directing function at all once it's out the door."