Judges and magistrates would be required to take into account an offender's Aboriginal background and consider ways to reduce the Indigenous prisoner population under a radical overhaul of sentencing laws drafted by leading lawyers and submitted to a national inquiry.

The blueprint for reducing Indigenous incarceration rates also recommends mandatory sentences be repealed across the country because the laws disproportionately affect Aboriginal offenders.

Attorney-General George Brandis announced an inquiry last year into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration rates, headed by the Australian Law Reform Commission.

In its submission to the inquiry, the NSW Bar Association sets out a series of proposed reforms, including amending state and territory sentencing laws "to expressly require courts to consider the unique systemic and background factors" affecting Indigenous offenders.