Building more cells at the ACT's prison is a sign of policy failure, according to former chief minister Jon Stanhope.
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He also says it is appalling that while Aborigines make up only 1.7 per cent of Canberra's population, they account for up to 25 per cent of the territory's prisoners.
Mr Stanhope was speaking after a seminar on justice reinvestment, a way of redirecting some of the money spent on prisons, into areas such as health and social interventions that can help keep people away from crime.
"It's incongruous for a jurisdiction that has embraced justice reinvestment to be responding to a massively growing imprisonment rate by building more cells," he said.
"It's a sign of failure to continue to have to build cells or add cells, it's a sign that a justice reinvestment philosophy hasn't permeated and isn't being delivered."
He said the ACT government had been involved with justice reinvestment through its deliberate decision to fund the Alexander Maconochie Centre at above the national average.
The cost of keeping each prisoner was $100 per day higher than the average rate at other jails.
"It receives a lot of criticism but I think it is a good thing, we need more data to understand it," he said.
"That's a massive investment in each prisoner – to spend $100 a day more on them than anybody else in Australia – but you'd want to see $100 a day of benefit in relation to rehabilitation, health status and a massively reduced recidivism rate.
"The AMC must be held accountable for that level of extra expenditure and, if the expected outcomes are not being achieved, consideration has to be given to redirecting the funds.
"Justice reinvestment is a philosophy I agree with absolutely and indeed it's what drove my commitment to the AMC and the philosophy I wanted to underpin it, which was about rehabilitation and reducing and eliminating recidivism, classic reinvestment in programs that would reduce the level of offending and genuinely reform people who were coming into the AMC.
"As part of that, we provided for very good health facilities and most particularly the education program and that costs.
"We're all now waiting eagerly to see what the fruits of that massive investment in the AMC are.
"It's early days, I think we need to be patient and to accept that."
Mr Stanhope said many people did not even know more than 6000 Aboriginal people lived in Canberra.
"The statistics regarding Indigenous disadvantage in Canberra are horrendous and we as a community need to face up to that, recognise it and address it," he says.
Quarterly prison data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows prisoner numbers at the AMC continuing to rise, reflecting a nationwide trend.
The average daily number of inmates in the ACT rose from 334 in September last year to 373 in September this year, putting pressure on the jail and the temporary 30-bed Symonston overflow facility, which has also reached capacity.
A recently-opened 30-bed special care unit for inmates who need help for drug addiction or behavioural problems is the first stage of a $54 million expansion project that will boost accommodation by 110 beds.
