There has been a backlash to comments from the South Australian Attorney-General that a group of Aboriginal gang members were "pure evil" with no hope of rehabilitation.

Some of the gang faced court yesterday. One of them has been charged with 33 serious offences, allegedly carried out in the past three weeks.

The head of the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement (ALRM) says the Attorney-General's comments are inflammatory and immature and former ATSIC chairwoman Lowitja O'Donoghue has described them as unhelpful.

As members of the gang appeared in the dock, South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson addressed the press.

"We are dealing with an evil phenomenon," he said.

"We are dealing with a criminal gang, gunmen, who go around in gangs hitting soft targets, such as bakeries and service stations, who terrorise workers sometimes in the early hours of the morning.

"This is not about a lack of taxpayers' money going about rehabilitation, this is about pure evil."

Mr Atkinson declared some of the alleged offenders as beyond rehabilitation.

"The gang of 49 is not an exclusively Aboriginal entity but it is an overwhelming Aboriginal entity and there's no wriggling out of that," he said.

"Among the gang of 49, there are a hard core of about 12 offenders who (Catholic priest and social policy leader) Monsignor Cappo, not just me, say are beyond redemption."

But ALRM head Neil Gillespie has condemned the comments.

"I think that's a very disappointing comment by our principal legal officer," he said.

"Surely there are appropriate programs, appropriate professional people that can assist the alleged offenders to rehabilitate. We're a caring and mature society. We should not be just following one of his counterparts, just saying rack 'em, pack 'em and stack 'em in jails.

"That's not how a mature society should be looking after our young people."

Members of the gang have been accused of a five-week rampage that included a dozen armed hold-ups and several home invasions. Some are still being sought by police.

Dr O'Donoghue says members of her community need help but she is also not impressed by the Attorney-General.

"I'm not happy that an attorney-general should be speaking like that and obviously they need help," she said.

"And we need to do our best to try and find a way that we can actually bring these people to account."

She says there is not enough being done to rehabilitate young offenders in South Australia.

"But on the other hand, I think a lot of people are trying and we are all very concerned and obviously more concerned than our Attorney-General," she said.

Dr O'Donoghue says Mr Atkinson's comments are not helping the situation.

"Not at all, not at all," she said.

"To give up that easily on these people, and none of us can afford to have these people at large either."