Ahead of its mid-year budget update, the ACT government announced it would spend $8.8 million over the next three-and-a-half-years to employ more senior staff at the Alexander Maconochie Centre and create a centralised intelligence agency within the jail.

Another $8 million will be spent over the next two-and-a-half years on establishing the Winnunga Nimmityjah model of care inside the prison.

Justice minister Shane Rattenbury said the greater focus on intelligence would help combat contraband and organised crime within the jail.

But Mr Rattenbury said the prison did not have a big gang problem.

"We don't have an issue with gangs at this stage but what we are seeing is with the effective police action intervening on our outlaw bikie gangs in the ACT we are receiving more and more outlaw motorcycle gang people into the jail so we need to make sure we stay on top of that as well," Mr Rattenbury said.

Violent extremism was not yet an issue in the ACT, Mr Rattenbury said, but the prison needed to be prepared.

"Those terrorism type offences have really taken place in Sydney and Melbourne so we don't have detainees like that at the moment," Mr Rattenbury said.

"We want to build our capability because we also do house Commonwealth offenders at times, we need to make sure we have the capability, also part of it is preparation for that eventuation."

The Canberra Liberals' spokeswoman on corrections, Giulia Jones, said the jail was "trying to probably do too much" with too little. She suggested the jail had been "set up a little bit wrong in the first place".

"The AMC houses every kind of prisoner the ACT produces and there probably isn't a like facility in the country that tries to do everything in the one place," Mrs Jones said.

"The facility has more beds than it needs right now so I don't think overcrowding as such is the problem ... what we are dealing with is a facility that has lots of people who can't associate with each other, because [what] we're doing is placing every category of criminal in the one facility."

The union for prison guards has sought a meeting with the government for more detail on how the money will be spent.

"On the information provided so far it appears this funding will provide additional leadership positions at AMC but no extra correctional officers. It's critical to maintaining security at AMC that correctional officers numbers are maintained," CPSU acting ACT regional secretary Ash van Dijk said.

Winnunga chief executive officer Julie Tongs said the health service had been "a long time coming" and was a legacy to Steven Freeman - an indigenous man who died in custody in 2016

The service was one of the recommendations from a damning independent inquiry by Philip Moss into the treatment of Mr Freeman at the AMC.

Ms Tongs said Winnunga's health services would be available to all inmates, whether they identified as Indigenous or not.

"We don't want to be divisive in the prison, we don't want other prisoners to think our clients are getting more than what they're getting," Ms Tongs said.

"Unless the government was able to provide the same level of service to mainstream inmates then the most appropriate way to do it is to open access to all detainees."

The health model will be an Australian first and Ms Tongs said other jurisdictions were watching its progress.

She expected tangible outcomes to come from the service - which will be gradually rolled out beginning with female inmates - within three to five years.

"The priority for us is to ensure in time all Aboriginal people are provided with an Aboriginal health check and care plan … the goal is for Winnunga to provide all services we do outside in the community, to prisoners also on the inside and this is a very good starting point," Ms Tongs said.

"The first point of call for many of those that have been incarcerated is Winnunga, to listen to their stories it's heartbreaking to think they're not getting better services.

"If we're going to make a difference and change things we've got to do it in the prison."