While incarceration rates continue to soar in the Northern Territory, experts warn mental health reform in the justice system is crucial for improving community safety in the long term.

Last week, mental health professionals, legal experts, Aboriginal organisations and youth justice advocates gathered in Alice Springs for a major symposium to discuss their concerns about inadequate mental health support and diversion for young people in the criminal justice system.

NT forensic psychiatrist Sarah Dorrington works across the territory's prisons and says there is an urgent need for reform.

"We know that more than half of men and more than three quarters of women in adult prisons in the NT have a mental disorder,"

Dr Dorrington said.

"That includes things like serious mental illness, but

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