In an Australian first, a private firm will be paid a bonus by the West Australian Government for every woman who does not return to jail two years after leaving.

The company, Sodexo, gets the keys to WA's newest women's prison, Melaleuca, today.

Rebecca Hamilton, the director of strategic policy at WA's Department of Corrective Services, said the move was a response to serious overcrowding.

"We've had issues with women sleeping on the floor, but rather than just put more beds in the system we thought this was the opportunity for us to actually go for broke and get something in place based on all of the good research that's out there about what makes a difference, particularly for women," she said.

Rebecca Hamilton says the bonuses aim to cut prison overcrowding. ( ABC News: Eliza Borrello )

"The UK have had a lot of success in reducing the number of women who reoffend through these types of approaches and that's what we're trying to replicate here.

"So basically what we're saying to Sodexo is if you can successfully provide programs for a woman so she doesn't reoffend then we'll pay you more for that than we will for a woman who comes back into the system."

At the moment 34 per cent of women released from WA prisons reoffend and end up back inside.

If Sodexo can significantly reduce reoffending rates it will get a $15,000 bonus for every woman who stays out of jail for two years.

One in two female prisoners in WA are Indigenous

Half of the women behind bars in Western Australia are Indigenous.

Jenni Collard is part of the executive team running the department's prisoner rehabilitation services and says Aboriginal women in the system face a common set of circumstances: they are addicted to drugs or alcohol and have suffered domestic violence.

Jenni Collard says there is only so much the system can do to stop prisoners reoffending. ( ABC News: Eliza Borrello )

"If there's a level of dysfunction in that family, you're going back into that," she said.

But Mrs Collard said there is only so much the system can do to prevent reoffending.

"We do everything we possibly can to give them the opportunity to be better citizens," she said.

"However, unless someone actually understands why they do this, knows the triggers of why they respond to the way they do … and then takes responsibility to do the right thing in the future, then it's very hard for us."

Former prisoner says education programs and support are key

Sheree Savy, 21, has spent a quarter of her life in and out of Western Australia's prison system.

She says the hardest test she faces in staying out is the temptation of the lifestyle that took her there.

"One minute you'll be sitting there all good. The next minute you're gone and robbing someone or you've got heaps of money. One minute you have everything, the next minute you have nothing," she said.

"I see now in families that I hang around now, that that's not normal to them.

"But where I grew up and who I grew up with it was just normal. "If you were sitting at a dinner table [and said] 'I broke into someone's house', they'd be like, 'oh'."

Ms Savy has been out of jail for two years now and has some tips for policy makers.

"Last time I was there the education program was really old, old IT programs, just about typing and things that you already know," she said.

"When you get out now I see that's where the future's going, science, technology.

"That's what they need to do, make more education programs for that."

She credits having a baby, having a roof over her head and good caseworkers with helping turn her life around.

"I feel the love from them, like they're family sort of and I do rely on them and I never had that in my life, like having someone that you know is going to be there," she said.

And she has a message for young women still caught in the cycle.

"You're so much better than jail, everyone is," she said.

"People make mistakes and we get that but you don't have to let those mistakes ruin your whole life.

"You can make a better one, if you want to."