This report contains the name of deceased persons.

The National Network has condemned the Northern Territory Government's proposed overhaul of the Youth Justice Act 2005 and Youth Justice Regulations 2006, describing the proposed changes as "a punitive attack on the rights, dignity, and lives of children in the Northern Territory".

"It is deeply inflammatory and irresponsible for Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro and her ministers to label people who want a fair and safe justice system as 'offender apologists'. This rhetoric is unbecoming of any public leader, let alone one tasked with safeguarding all Territorians, including children,' said First Nations justice advocate Tabitha Lean said on Monday.

"When government policy enables cruelty, the results are fatal. We will see children harmed. We will see children die in custody. And when those deaths occur, the responsibility will lie squarely at the feet of Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro and her government."

Ms Lean said the National Network, a justice and human rights advocacy group, rejects "the narrative that justice must be cruel to be effective".

The group warned against the NT government's reintroduction of spit hoods, noting the 2016 death of Wayne Fella Morrison, a Wiradjuri, Kookatha and Wirangu man killed in custody after being restrained, hooded, and left unresponsive in the back of a prison van, and the 2021 death in custody of Selesa Taifaifa, a Samoan woman, at Townsville Women's Correctional Centre while being forcibly restrained with a spit hood.

"The removal of detention as a last resort, the reintroduction of spit hoods, and the use of a child's full criminal history in sentencing are regressive, harmful and dangerous," Debbie Kilroy said.

"These changes will not keep the community safe, they will result in more harm, more trauma, and more deaths in custody.

"Let us be clear: spit hoods are instruments of torture. They are used to degrade, control and silence. Their deadly consequences are well documented. To bring spit hoods back, especially for use on children, is a grotesque failure of leadership. It will not prevent harm. It is harm."

The Network also noted that the removal of the principle that detention must be a last resort for children defies national and international human rights obligations, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Ms Kilroy said many of the children who appear before the courts are themselves victims; of violence, poverty, neglect, racism and state failure.

"They are not born 'offenders', they are criminalised by a system that was never designed to protect them," she said.

Ms Lean said the National Network called for the urgent withdrawal of the legislation and "a complete halt to this escalating war on children".