Indigenous reoffending could be cut through improved access to rehabilitation programs, according to a senior Shoalhaven Aboriginal Legal Services solicitor.Responding to a Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) report that indigenous crime could be dramatically cut by reducing recidivism, Gary Pudney said many offenders were missing out on effective treatments because of a lack of available places."The best way to get people out of the criminal justice system is to get them employed and the best way to get them employed is to get them off drugs and alcohol."But there is a lack of places in these programs. We can spend days or weeks calling trying to get someone in," Mr Pudney said.A spokesman for NSW Attorney-General John Hatzistergos said the Government was trying to reduce the over-representation of indigenous people in the court system through a number of court-based and rehabilitative programs.But Mr Pudney said real progress won't be made until conditions driving crime are tackled.Even circle sentencing, a peer-based system of dishing out punishment for minor crimes, could only make a small impact, he said."If someone goes to jail or circle and comes back to the same conditions - back to unemployment, back to the same socio-economic conditions you were in when you committed the offence, then it's unlikely your life will be turned around," Mr Pudney said.Illawarra Aboriginal rights campaigner Roy "Dootch" Kennedy described the court system as "culturally inappropriate" and urged a wider uptake of the circle sentencing system used in selected locations, including Nowra.He said the scheme offered a strong deterrent as it was managed mainly by elders, making offenders accountable to their own community."One thing that's still very strong in our community is kinship. We know most of the families in our area because we socialise with each other," he said.Despite comprising just 2 per cent of the state's population, indigenous Australians last year accounted for 13 per cent of all people facing criminal charges.The BOCSAR study, released in December, estimated more than 80 per cent of indigenous defendants appearing in court will at some stage return, typically within less than two years."Given the strong influence that drug and alcohol abuse have on the risk of indigenous arrest, it would also seem prudent to increase indigenous access to drug and alcohol treatment," its director, Dr Don Weatherburn said.