The $400,000 trial will give indigenous people who come into contact with the courts' bail system to apply for bail, ensure they meet conditions and draw up a personal plan on how to stay out of prison.

Named after the Ngunnawal word 'ngurrambai', or 'perceive', the trial will be funded with proceeds from the government's confiscation of criminal assets trust fund.

One of a series of justice reinvestment initiatives the government is trialling, the bail support program will see two new indigenous staff in the Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW-ACT) working specifically with ACT residents to help them with the bail process.

Corrections minister Shane Rattenbury said while it had "taken a while to get here", the government had a "real sense this is a program that can make a difference" to the ACT's high indigenous incarceration rate.

He said the program would help indigenous Canberrans apply for bail at a first court hearing to avoid jail, support them to abide their conditions while on bail and help detainees apply for bail.

It follows calls earlier this year for "systemic change" to the ACT's justice and child protection systems in an effort to cut the number of indigenous inmates, who in the Alexander Maconochie Centre number about 25 per cent of the population.

Mr Rattenbury said it would provide a real test of the academic evidence such programs help to reduce recidivism and incarceration rates, in a bid to reach the government's target of a 25 per cent fall in recidivism by 2025.

He said while the target had caused some in justice policy circles to "draw breath", the government needed to take "calculated risks" if indigenous incarceration rates were to be reduced.

ALS chairman Bunja Smith said the oft-cited figure of 27 per cent of Australia's prison population being indigenous showed it was a 'wicked problem' and the ACT, like other states, "must reduce the number of Aboriginal people on remand".

But he said the program could help those who may not understand the bail process to apply, or at least not be deemed ineligible, and it would reduce the numbers of indigenous people currently on remand in the Alexander Maconochie Centre.

Mr Smith said while he would have liked to have seen more resources put to the program, it was still a trial and he believed it would be several months before it was clear if the trial was working, or what might need to change.

While the program will apply to all other types of bail, the trial will not involve police bail, a concerning issue given the rising number of police apprehensions of indigenous Canberrans compared to non-indigenous residents.

Mr Rattenbury said the government was working with ACT Policing to examine police bail and what changes could be made, as well as wider work led by Police Minister Mick Gentleman to reduce apprehensions.