Protestors gathered outside the electoral office of WA Premier Mark McGowan on Friday to call for youth justice reforms.

The action was called by community group Break the Cycle.

Group spokesperson, Palawa woman Angel Rohan, said before the protest the current approach to youth justice in Western Australia is failing.

"Children who are safely and effectively rehabilitated are not driven to riot, yet we've seen two riots (this year). Clearly Banksia Hill in its current form is not working," she said.

"We are calling for drastic change at Banksia Hill that sees an end to the abuse of children."

After the protest Ms Rohan told National Indigenous Times the advocates were "very surprised about how little it seemed the public knew about what was happening at these detention centres and how international and local human rights were being violated by the children".

"The UN human rights of prisoners and… the UN human rights of children in detention centres… are being violated across the board," she said.

"The inspection report that was released at the beginning of last year (identified) human rights violations and the government doesn't seem to care that much… nothing has changed.

"It's only a matter of time before a kid dies in Banksia Hill."

Ms Rohan noted that Indigenous children are severely overrepresented in detention.

"We… are really heartbroken that it disproportionately affects First Nations children and Mob just in general going to prison, [with] the highest incarceration rates in the world, but we only make three per cent of the population," she said.

"We realise from research, it does disproportionately affect Indigenous children, but it affects low socioeconomic children and it repeats that cycle again and again - generational trauma."

Ms Rohan said Corrective Services Minister Bill Johnston "doesn't want to acknowledge what is happening".

"(He says) he believes it's running effectively and it's a therapeutic environment but it's set up to be a prison and not a rehab centre," she said.

"The reason we are here at Mark McGowan's office today is because Mark McGowan is complaining that the public are pressuring the government to make a change but it's not the government's responsibility, and he's saying it's the responsibility of the parents," she said.

"While children that end up in Banksia may come from circumstances of their family, it is important to acknowledge that once they are in the juvenile detention system they are in the care of the government and it's the government's responsibility to make sure that human rights are being met there; they're getting their education, they're getting the mental health support they need.

"No child would be pushed to riot if the conditions were safe and healthy and also important to note Mark McGowan has openly refused to raise the age (of criminality responsibility) from ten."

A spokesperson for the WA government told National Indigenous Times noted that in 2022 the state allocated nearly $90m to Banksia Hill for infrastructure upgrades, a new Crisis Care Unit, new recreation and sleeping quarters, an Aboriginal Services Unit, mental health support and the introduction of the new service model.

"Currently, each sentenced young person in Banksia Hill Detention Centre has an individualised case management plan, focused on addressing their rehabilitation needs. The case management plan is developed based on the completion of a gender and culturally informed, strengths-focused tool that reliably and accurately classifies and predicts re-offending and provides an indication of areas for intervention in youth offenders," he said.

"There is a diverse range of interventions provided to young people in custody, which specifically target the needs associated with rehabilitation. This includes provision of education and vocational training, individual psychological counselling, group-based programs focusing on offending behaviour, mental health assessments and intervention, mentoring programs, and drug counselling."

The government spokesperson said a newly developed Operating Philosophy and Service Model for Banksia Hill, which is "informed by best practice from national and international research", has been completed and will be systematically and strategically implemented over 2023 with a focus on change management processes.