Allegations that juvenile detention officers in the Northern Territory encouraged teenage inmates to fight each other for junk food and eat bird faeces are not the first rights abuse claims, an Aboriginal legal aid lawyer says.
A former inmate of the Don Dale juvenile detention centre made the allegations at a youth justice forum held in Darwin on Monday.
"There was (peacock) poo sitting on the ground one time and a young fellow got dared to eat its shit and they (the guards) videoed it and put it on Snapchat and sent that to all their friends, and they gave him a Coke and a chocolate," he said, the ABC reported on Wednesday.
Jared Sharp, spokesman for the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, said allegations of staff violence against detainees had been raised by about a dozen young people and was corroborated by an expert review into the system in February.
He said officers had failed to protect the rights of young detainees.
One complained that a prison officer hit them on the knees with a torch if they didn't comply with an instruction, while another was assaulted with a telephone after they ignored an officer's order to hang up.
"The concern is there is still this culture of denial, and not strong leadership within corrections and youth justice to protect the rights of these kids," Mr Sharp told AAP.
But he said the department's response had been "to not accept or even investigate allegations of this nature because the kid is seen as unreliable".
NT Police have been investigating claims relating to Don Dale since May.
"We're waiting to see what the outcome of their investigation is, and on the basis of that we will be in a position to determine what action the department may take if the allegations are proven to be correct," a Corrections spokesman said.
A review by the Children's Commissioner into an alleged riot at the centre last August found that there was unnecessary use of spit hoods, inappropriate handcuffing, and excessive use of solitary confinement, which prompted the Human Rights Law Centre to write to the United Nations special rapporteur on torture on Monday asking for an urgent investigation.
The Vita Review in February found that staff received a "grossly inadequate" four days' training, compared to up to 11 weeks in other jurisdictions, and that there was a high turnover of casualised workers.
"They are retrospectively training staff, so we still have largely untrained staff looking after these children," Mr Sharp said.
Corrections Minister John Elferink said all 16 recommendations of the Vita Review would be implemented and that he is investigating the Children's Commissioner's recommendations, but no time frame was given for completion.
Police have not yet determined whether a crime has been committed, Assistant Police Commissioner Jeanette Kerr said.
"If we reach the point where we can identify a crime has been committed and we have a suspect or an offender then we will lay charges," she said.
"We investigate crimes, we don't investigate employees' behaviour in other agencies that don't amount to crimes."
The NT's youth justice system is spiralling out of control, said Labor's Shadow Minister for Youth, Lauren Moss.
"Minister John Elferink's complete lack of leadership and `head in the sand' approach is indicative of an attitude that is allergic to transparency and accountability," she said in a statement.
She said that Commissioner Middlebrook's "refusal to investigate an incredibly serious allegation of mistreatment... is an appalling decision".
