NRL mentors to divert at-risk teens from crime out bush

The "outside the box" initiative will involve the NRL partner with NSW Police to recruit young people in towns across the state.

Moree, a small northern NSW town experiencing a spike in robberies, break-ins and car theft, will be used as a possible blueprint for change.

Premier Chris Minns has met with town leaders to jump-start the program, while continuing his pitch over controversial youth bail laws and a suite of regional crime measures to curb a spike in violent incidents.

"Initiatives like this one offer hope and an alternative," he told reporters in Moree on Wednesday.

"You can't be what you can't see and if young people in Moree see an NRL player in the peak of his or her game they can imagine what's possible for them."

Mayor Mark Johnson is optimistic pairing young people with an NRL mentor and unique access to the sport will deter kids from a life of crime.

"We put our hand up and said we were happy to be a test case," he told AAP.

"We have 54 agencies across town from health and education to youth crime and drug and rehab but we're getting the same result.

"We're not seeing any reduction in the level of youth crime."

A pilot program is also being run in the town, where $13.4 million will be spent on provisions such as extra judicial resources, the Aboriginal Legal Service and a bail accommodation and support service for young people.

Controversial changes to bail laws were passed in March, making it harder for older youths to be released if they were charged for some serious offences while similar charges were pending.

So-called "post and boast" provisions were also introduced, adding an extra two-year-maximum penalty for anyone who stole a vehicle or committed a break-in and shared material to advertise their crimes.

Critics have slammed the bail measure as likely leading to more children - particularly Indigenous youths - being kept behind bars.

The Aboriginal Legal Service said more than half of the 4393 children sent to prison in 2023 were Indigenous.

"If jailing kids worked, we would have seen it by now," the organisation said in a statement on Tuesday.

Aboriginal community-led and Moree-based organisation Just Reinvest said initiatives should be about helping to break the cycle of crime.

"Incarceration (is) like a revolving door with the same dangerous behaviours passing on to the next generation," manager Thomas Duncan said.

But Mr Minns said the government had struck the right balance.

"We haven't just introduced a law-and-order response," he said.

"We're also looking at the amount of money we spent in pre-crime diversion programmes, particularly for adolescents, particularly for regional communities, particularly for Indigenous communities."

Mr Johnson said he knew there was no silver-bullet solution to local crime.

"We can't jail our way out of this," he said, adding that agencies needed to work together to maintain programs that kept kids active and engaged.

Australian Associated Press