More youngsters from Indigenous people are still being held in juvenile detention, despite a slight dip in numbers over the past for years.

According to latest statistics released by Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, an Indigenous young person is 20 times more likely than his non-Indigenous counterpart to be in juvenile detention unsentenced. After sentencing, he is 26 times more likely to be in detention.

Northern Territory has the highest detention rate while Western Australia showed the highest over-represention. An Indigenous young person aged 10-17 was 29 times as likely to be in unsentenced detention, and 50 times as likely to be in sentenced detention as a non-Indigenous young person.

Matthew Keeley, a lawyer from the National Children's and Youth Law Centre, slammed this over-representation of Indigenous young person in juvenile detention.

“Northern Territory having the highest retention rates because of the high Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population,” explained Keeley to ABC reporter Samantha Donovan.

“Western Australia was also high because of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population but also the fact that they're the biggest and most de-centralised state and you can understand if a court feels that somebody in a remote area might not turn up for their trial, they would be inclined to transport them to Perth and serve remand there.”

Keeley feels that the government in states and territories are not doing enough. But he thinks the Federal government should have more active role in solving the problem as it is “the real silent player here.”

“Yes the states tend to be responsible totally for juvenile justice, but the Commonwealth bound Australia and all the states to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which says 1) that detention is the last resort, and 2) in all matters involving children, the best interests of the child shall be paramount.”