The peak body representing businesses in the Northern Territory is backing a push for more community-led programs as alternatives to incarceration, amid an increase in people being sentenced to time behind bars.
A new report published by the Smarter Justice for a Safer Territory campaign, formed as part of the NT Aboriginal Justice Agreement (NTAJA), found 70 per cent of people surveyed preferred more programs to tackle the underlying causes of crime over prison sentences.
The report found approximately 1 per cent of the NT's adult population was behind bars, coinciding with a recent increase in crime in both Central Australia and Darwin.
It recommended an expansion of community-led programs such as those adopted on Groote Eylandt, which had successfully reduced youth and adult offending and recidivism.
NTAJA governance committee co-chair Olga Havnen said tough-on-crime approaches had failed to address the issue in the NT across decades.
"I would really love to see the Commonwealth and the territory government, and community organisations, be involved in what I would describe as a long-term plan — that's what's needed," she said.
"These are complex and challenging issues, and we need to be guided by what the medical advice and the health research says is effective."
Ms Havnen said the results of the survey of Territorians found an overwhelming majority of people in the NT wanted alternatives to jailing.
"People are increasingly recognising that the great level of disadvantage that far too many Aboriginal people experience is a large cause, or an underlying driver, of some of these problems."
The report found only 6 per cent of respondents believed the current system was keeping people safe.
The call for more alternative programs has been backed by the Northern Territory's Chamber of Commerce, with its chief operating officer Nicole Walsh saying it was important business was part of a community-led approach to the issue.
The issue of crime in the NT has been thrust into the spotlight in recent months, first after a surge in alcohol-related violence in Central Australia following the lifting of liquor restrictions.
Last week the NT government committed to "urgent" and "immediate" reviews of bail laws and new measures to keep hospitality staff safe in Darwin, following the stabbing death of 20-year-old bottle shop worker Declan Laverty in the city's northern suburbs.
"Obviously we are going through a really hard period at the moment," Ms Walsh said.
"We have to acknowledge that the business community itself knows we cannot continue how we're going either.
"There need to be consequences from actions … but absolutely know we need to change the way that we're doing things."
Opposition backs diversion programs
NT Attorney-General Chansey Paech said the Smarter Justice for a Safer Territory campaign "goes to the heart" of understanding why people were ending up in the territory's corrections system.
He said the government wanted to embrace alternatives to custody and different programs to prevent people from offending and being sentenced to jail terms.
Expansion of diversionary programs has the backing of the NT's main opposition party, the CLP, with health spokesman Bill Yan saying it wanted money invested into measures that keep people out of jail.
"We agree, throwing people in jail doesn't work," he said.
Mr Yan praised a program in Central Australia which had successfully diverted at-risk women away from crime, delivered as part of the NTAJA.
He also called on the government to back the CLP's proposed tougher bail legislation, which the party was seeking to get introduced into parliament this coming week.
Mr Paech said the government would not rush changes to the NT's bail laws, saying a promised review was "underway" but that he was mindful of wanting to avoid any "unintended consequences" from reforms.
