Western Australia's Inspector of Custodial Services and Ngalla Maya Aboriginal Corporation have urged the State Government to do more to help Aboriginal prisoners gain employment skills.

The call came in the wake of the Inspector's new report on Albany Prison, in which Eamon Ryan and his staff identified a range of issues in the prison.

Mr Ryan told the National Indigenous Times that while Aboriginal prisoners make up 38% of the Albany prison population, only 14% of the prisoners are "engaged in meaningful employment, in the desirable industries where they can get job skills... it could be gardening, the kitchen, textiles work shop."

"We made a recommendation, again, that the Department needs to do more. The Department response is that [Aboriginal prisoners] get the same opportunities to apply as any other prisoner. That clearly is not working so the Department needs to do more.

"A lot of men in prison need an extra hand, additional encouragement whether it is applying for work or in terms of job-ready skills, simple work-ready skills.

"You need to try to improve motivation and to do that you need mentors and role models.

"Each prison has an Aboriginal Services Committee, that would be a good vehicle through which you can monitor progress. It's not rocket science.

"The response we have from the Department is that 'we fully support getting Aboriginal blokes into employment and we track their progress through the Aboriginal Services Committee' but...

"...they don't say they will do anything differently to what they are already doing. That tells me that nothing is going to change."

He noted that while overall pay in prison is very low, the prisoners in the "desirable industries" are paid more.

Mervyn Eades, CEO of Ngalla Maya Aboriginal Corporation, which runs employment programs for Aboriginal ex-prisoners, told National Indigenous Times that Mr Ryan is "dead right".

"Once they get out of prison the mainstream organisations put them in the too hard basket. They've got no resumes, no past employment. They don't tick any of the mainstream boxes. They come out of prison with nothing, not even a birth certificate. No ID," he said.

"I went to juvenile prison at 13 and was in and out of prison until I was 31, and at 31 I turned my life around.

"From all those years I got no skills, no training, no qualifications. You can send someone to prison for 20 years and they come out and can't read and write. The only qualification you get is how to be hard, and we come out hard.

"They have a captive audience - they should be investing in stopping them from coming back to prison, get them qualifications, get them skills, but they don't. It's cost cutting.

"What we (Ngalla Maya) are doing, culturally appropriate work with people who have been in and out of prison, they should be doing it in the prison."

The report by the Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services also identified run-down infrastructure in WA's only regional maximum security prison as an issue, and made 15 recommendations in total.

The report said while there were several areas of improvement from the 2016 inspection, there were "missed opportunities" by the management and Department of Justice such as issues with building use, staffing levels, and prison programs, and highlighted vacancies in custodial officers, vocational support officers, and civilian staff which are "driving stress, frustration, and low morale".

The inspection found that the number of prisoners engaged in employment, education, or programs had reduced since the 2016 inspection, with 55 per cent of the population either unemployed or under-employed in unit work.

Mr Ryan told the National Indigenous Times that the new report "makes similar findings [to the two previous reports]" in regards to Aboriginal prisoners.

The Department of Justice responded to the 15 recommendations contained in the report on tabled in State Parliament.

Six recommendations were supported or supported in principle, seven were noted, and two not supported.

Corrective Services Commissioner Michael Reynolds said Albany "has been one of the Department's high performing prisons in relation to its capacity to respond to an emergency."

"This is particularly valuable given Albany's geographical location and distance from the metropolitan area," he said.

In a statement, the Department said it is "developing better engagement strategies to enhance job prospects for Aboriginal prisoners on release."

"Albany's participation rate in the Time to Work Employment Service Program is the highest in the State."

Mr Ryan noted that in regard to not doing enough to develop employment skills among Aboriginal prisoners, "Albany is not alone... and it's particularly apparent in the larger prisons."

He urged the state government to adopt "a particular strategy for Aboriginal prisoners".

By Giovanni Torre