Dubbo Regional Council mayor and barrister Stephen Lawrence welcomed the announcement of a drug court after campaigning since 2010.

"The reality for a long time, almost 20 years now, has been that if you suffer from addiction and you're in the system for a property crime, you will get a different type of justice in Sydney as compared to the country," he said.

"That is not equality before the law. It's always been, been unacceptable, and it's the rollout of initiatives like the drug court to country areas that start to bring equality before the law."

Expanding the NSW Drug Court program to Dubbo was one of 39 recommendations made by the Select Committee on the High Level of First Nations People in Custody and Oversight and Review of Deaths in Custody.

The same recommendation was been made in a 2018 inquiry into drug rehabilitation services in regional, remote and rural areas, as well as in the 2020 inquiry into the drug ice.

"We have struggled for too long in this region, with high rates of property crime, with completely unacceptable rates of Aboriginal over-representation in our jails and the thing about the drug court is it actually works," Cr Lawrence said.

"It actually works in pushing down crime rates.

"It actually works in pushing down the disgraceful situation of Aboriginal over-representation in our jails, and that is why I'm just so thrilled to be here on behalf of council to welcome this incredibly important announcement."

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A study by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre and NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, released last year, found the reoffending rate among participants monitored over more than a decade was 17 per cent lower than similar offenders outside the program.

They also took 22 per cent longer to commit a violent offence.

"Council upon our election, passed a motion which recognised that there is an insidious link between social disadvantage and the operation of the criminal justice system," Cr Lawrence said.

"In many ways, and it's long not been recognised, the criminal justice system is worsening social disadvantage, it's perpetrating intergenerational disadvantage, it's meaning that children in certain homes don't have the same opportunities.

"And it's infrastructure like the drug court, that actually breaks that insidious cycle of intergenerational disadvantage and that is why this announcement is so exciting."

The Orana Law Society have also been long-term advocates for a drug court in Dubbo and welcomed Thursday's announcement.

Orana Law Society secretary, Jennifer Spear said the specialist court would benefit not only Dubbo but the wider region.

"It's been a very long time coming, but better late than never," she said.

"There's a space disparity in the justice you can get in Sydney to regional areas, and so I think it will be a hub not only for Dubbo, but for surrounding regions as well.

She said drug addiction didn't discriminate, and a drug court would boost the delivery of justice in the region.

"Anyone whose been inflicted with any kind of drug issue - whether that be from their childhood, through to their adulthood and just dabbling, it will benefit them socially and be able to integrate back into society instead of the harsh retributive justice you get in custody, so it benefits the whole community," Ms Spear said.

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