Indigenous-led youth advocacy group Children's Ground has raised the alarm about the Northern Territory Government's latest amendments to the NT's Youth Justice Regulations.

The organisation said the changes mark "another punitive shift that fails to address the underlying causes of youth behaviour and instead reinforce cycles of harm and incarceration".

On Friday, the CLP government said amendments to the Regulations will expand the list of serious offences that are ineligible for youth diversion.

"Offenders that commit [one or more of] 13 additional serious offences will no longer get the benefit from Labor's previous catch and release scheme," the government said in a statement.

NT Chief Minister and Minister for Police Lia Finocchiaro said under the changes to the regulations, offences including serious harm offending, hit and runs, driving stolen vehicles, assaults on frontline workers and break ins will now have a default position of proceeding to charge.

The inclusion of non-violent offences such as driving stolen vehicles will see some non-violent offenders proceeding to charge and potential incarceration rather than into diversionary programs which aim to break the cycle of imprisonment and re-offending.

Advocacy groups Justice not Jails and the Justice Reform Initiative have also condemned the move.

On Monday Children's Ground said the Territory Government continues to "target the symptoms of social distress while neglecting the root causes".

"Our young people have grown up amid systemic disadvantage: in communities marked by economic hardship, food insecurity, housing stress, racism, intergenerational trauma and police violence. They are the systems most vulnerable casualties," the group said in an official statement.

"We are witnessing an ongoing pattern of top-down, reactionary policy-making that disregards the knowledge, leadership and lived experience of First Nations people.

"Instead of strengthening community-based systems of care, governments continue to distance children from support and place them deeper within punitive systems that repeatedly fail. Criminalising children will not create safer communities. It only deepens trauma and reinforces cycles of harm.

"The real work lies in building strong foundations in culture, in family, and in community. That is where change begins."

Children's Ground said that its work has demonstrated what is possible when children grow up strong in their culture, supported by their families, and surrounded by opportunity instead of punishment.

"We call on the NT Government to reverse these amendments and commit to genuine partnership with First Nations communities. Justice begins with children being safe, seen, valued and supported, on Country, in their languages and with their families. It begins with a system that invests in prevention, not prison."

Chief Minister Finocchiaro said on that the changes to the Regulations "were asked for by the NT Police who are sick and tired of Labor's weak-kneed approach to law and order".

The CLP has presided over a massive increase in the Territory's prison population since taking office in August last year.