Aboriginal workers sought for WA prisons

A substantial increase in the indigenous workforce of Western Australia's prisons is being sought by the Department of Corrective Services.

The department is seeking to increase the proportion of indigenous staff to 7.25 per cent, up from 4.2 per cent in 2013-14.

Fred Chaney, the founding co-chair of Reconciliation Australia and a former federal minister for Aboriginal affairs, says crime and incarceration is WA's biggest obstacle to reconciling with indigenous people.

About 40 per cent of WA's adult prisoners and 78 per cent of the state's young detainees are Aboriginal.