The National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls has supported the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre's calls for the notorious Ashley Youth Detention Centre to be closed.

It comes after Centre (TAC) campaign coordinator Nala Mansell urged the "immediate and permanent closure of Ashley Youth Detention Centre" last week.

Ms Mansell's calls came after Tasmanian Minister for Children Roger Jaensch said the Centre couldn't close until a replacement facility was built in the state's south.

In reference to the newly announced Tasmanian Youth Justice Facility, the National Network called for the Tasmanian government "abandon its dangerous and short-sighted plan to build yet another child prison in its place".

"Children are not disposable. Yet the Tasmanian government's ongoing failure to close Ashley—a prison widely condemned as a site of abuse and trauma—shows a complete disregard for the safety, wellbeing and futures of some of the state's most vulnerable children," National Network's Debbie Kilroy said.

Recommended for closure following the state's inquiry into institutionalised child sexual abuse, the Tasmanian government first indicated it would close the centre by the end of 2024, later saying it would be close in 2026 once a replacement facility had been established.

However according to Minister Jaensch, the latest delay means the Centre will remain open until 2028.

"We cannot (close the centre) before we have a new functional detention facility," Mr Jaensch told reporters last week.

"We believe … we can see the new facility built before the end of 2027 and then the closure of Ashley shortly thereafter."

Ms Kilroy said the Tasmanian government's position on youth justice amounts to "punishment over healing".

"Every day Ashley remains open, and every dollar spent on a replacement prison, is another day this government chooses punishment over healing, surveillance over safety, and control over care," Ms Kilroy said.

"Aboriginal children—who continue to be criminalised at alarming rates—are paying the price for a system that punishes them for poverty, racism, and intergenerational trauma."

First Nations young people continue to be overrepresented in youth detention in Tasmania.

During the 2022-23 reporting period, First Nations young people aged 10-17 represented 31 per cent of young people under youth justice supervision during, despite making up 10 per cent of that age demographic in Tasmania's population.

According to the Tasmanian Government's Department for Education, Children and Young People (DECYP), the daily average of young people in custodial youth justice in the state sat at 16.2 for the December quarter, with 42 individuals entering custodial youth justice in that time.

Ms Mansell said children held in youth detention are not criminals, but are "victims of a society that criminalises poverty, dispossession and trauma".

"What they need is connection to culture, to land, to healing. They need support and safety, not punishment," Ms Mansell said.

In addition to calling for the immediate closure of Ashley and the cancellation of the the new facility, the National Network said funds should be redirected to "community-led, culturally safe solutions that support children to heal, grow and thrive".

They also said Aboriginal leadership, including that from the TAC, should be listen to, arguing their calls are "rooted in decades of truth-telling and deep community care".

"Now is the time for the Tasmanian Government to choose a different path," National Networks's Tabitha Lean said.

" One that is innovative, ground-breaking, and transformative. One that invests in the solutions that communities already know work—keeping children safe in their homes, classrooms and on Country.

"The community don't need better cages. They need better commitments."

Ashley is set to be replaced by a 16-bed "best-practice, therapeutic design", in Pontville, north of Hobart, with the government saying the new facility has been designed to "ensure the safety of the community as well staff and residents, as well as addressing the individual needs and risk factors of young offenders".

Mr Jaensch said the government "can see the new facility built before the end of 2027 and then the closure of Ashley shortly thereafter".