A lawyer who blew the whistle on conditions inside Darwin's Don Dale youth detention centre says the Government is failing to act on key royal commission recommendations, and is holding girls in a section that was recommended for immediate closure.

Key points: Royal commission into youth detention recommendations delivered one year ago

Royal commission into youth detention recommendations delivered one year ago Progress report finds work on 33 recommendations complete

Progress report finds work on 33 recommendations complete Daily conditions experienced by Don Dale detainees largely unchanged, lawyer says

The Government on Friday released a one-year progress report on 218 of the commission's recommendations, all of which the Government said it accepted "in intent and direction".

The report said work on 33 recommendations was complete, including $10.48 million in interim safety upgrades to the youth detention centres, improved partnerships with Aboriginal organisations and families and an overhaul of child protection processes.

But lawyer Jared Sharp told a rally in Darwin on Friday night that much of the report was "puff" and that the daily conditions experienced by young people inside Don Dale remained largely unchanged.

He highlighted the ongoing use of the centre's high-security unit, which the royal commissioners said last November was bad for young people's health and prospects of rehabilitation and should be closed "immediately".

"Right now there is a girl in those back cells," he said.

Jared Sharp told a rally in Darwin much of the progress report was "puff" ( ABC News: Jacqueline Breen )

"The reason for that is, they do not have an accommodation block for girls within Don Dale, right now, and so they're using those back cells for girls.

"If your daughter was remanded in custody tonight, that is where she would go — in solitary confinement in the back cells."

The Government's progress report said that action on the royal commission's recommendation to close the unit was complete.

It said the unit was closed late last year and renovated, before being reopened in March with bars and grill mesh replaced with Perspex.

A Territory Families spokesperson said the renovations also included the installation of air conditioning and bathroom facilities, and the removal of concrete bars to allow for more natural light.

The spokesperson said a new wing for girls would be opened at Don Dale before the end of the month.

A replacement for Don Dale is not due to be completed until 2021, a timeframe commissioner Margaret White described as "extraordinary".

'Isolation' continues, policing changes underway

Mr Sharp said effective isolation and excessive cell time were continuing despite improved legislation introduced by the Government.

During two visits to the centre this week, he said he found 10 boys in one section were only being allowed outside their rooms for one hour each day.

"It's a pretty good law, the new law, [but] the problem is they're not following it," he said.

Mr Sharp said the NT Government was failing to act on the royal commission's recommendations ( ABC News: Mitchell Woolnough )

"They're saying that these kids are not under separation when anyone could see that's exactly what they are."

The department rejected those claims, and said the boys detained in that section were spending 10 hours per day outside the cells, with a range of recreational activities scheduled on weekends.

The Government said earlier that a number of detainees had been put on targeted management programs after a recent riot at the facility.

In a statement, Territory Families Minister Dale Wakefield said the Government had made "substantial progress" in implementing the royal commission's recommendations, but conceded there was more to be done.

"We made an election promise to get young people back on the right path and away from a life of crime, and that is what we are doing," she said.

The report said the Government had established a Youth Advisory Committee co-chaired by a young person in detention, and Youth Justice Officers were now required to hold a Certificate IV qualification in the field.

It said a new clinical service had been created to give young people therapeutic support, but that finding and training qualified staff had been "challenging".

The report made no mention of the recommendation to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 years of age.

An update on recommendations targeted at Northern Territory police was contained in a recently released Ombudsman's report.

It said that police had begun a review of their charging practices over the past three years, and had written a business case for a new specialist Youth Division.