The mother of a prisoner in Darwin's jail has demanded to know why she was unable to send photocopies of newspaper stories covering a report that strongly criticised facilities in the prison to her son.

The report, written by former Queensland director general of Corrective Services, Keith Hamburger, found the $1.8 billion prison at Holtze had structural and security issues that had created "demeaning and humiliating" conditions for inmates.

The NT Attorney-General Natasha Fyles at first only released the executive summary of the report to the media, but the full report was quickly leaked to Sky News, which resulted in heavy coverage in the local press.

Katherine woman Glenice Grieve said she tried to post photocopies of stories from the NT News to her son Zak, but the mail was stopped by the Department of Corrections.

"I'm trying to figure out why that is so, it's public knowledge the newspaper," she said.

Ms Grieve said her son had lodged a formal request with the Department asking why his mail had been stopped.

"He hasn't been given any answers, so I'm here following up as a mum."

The Department of Corrections declined an interview.

In a statement, it said the Hamburger report contained information about the construction of the prison.

"Therefore, for the safety of prison staff and the community, matters in the report relating to any security issues would be subject to redaction before provision to prisoners," the statement said.

It added there were restrictions on prisoners receiving newspapers, but said it was up to the general manager to decide what was appropriate.

'It's in a newspaper, it's not something secretive'

The Criminal Lawyers' Association NT president, Russell Goldflam, said there was a "constant theme" of seemingly harmless documents being taken out of prisoner's mail.

"Sometimes there are documents that you'd think would be quite uncontroversial that you would think they'd be able to be provided with but it turns out that the prison authorities have considered for whatever reason that they shouldn't be made available to the prisoner," he said.

But he added he was surprised that newspaper clippings would be stopped.

"These are documents, newspaper reports, that are in the public domain," he said.

"Prisoners can watch television so there's plenty of items on the news every night where prisons are coming under scrutiny."

A list of items that are banned from being posted to prisoners on the department's website includes "any written or printed materials in excess of five A4 pages", and "pamphlets, books or magazines, except when directly purchased from the publisher by the prisoner".

Neither of those exemptions would seem to rule out sending photocopies of a newspaper.

Ms Grieve said she could not understand why the Department was keeping the press coverage from prisoners.

"It's like the prison is trying to keep them in the dark in regards to what's happening on the outside, which I find and feel very sad that that's happening," she said.

"I feel everybody has a right to know, especially if it's public knowledge. It's in a newspaper, it's not something secretive and it's so sad that this is happening.

"It's frustrating, because it closes a person down, not being able to get information and knowing what's happening on the outside, it's like they're closed off. To me that's not healthy."

Ms Grieve also said that conditions for visitors and prisoners were better at the old prison in Berrimah, despite it once being described by the then Commissioner as only "fit for a bulldozer".

"At Berrimah they allowed inmates to purchase newspapers, have Walkmans, their own fans, their own TVs, shoes, there were vending machines in the visiting areas to buy snacks," Ms Grieve said.

"In the new prison newspapers are disallowed, musical instruments are a no-no, the Walkmans were no longer allowed, fans and TVs were sent home from Berrimah, they have vending machines in the visiting areas but they're empty.

"There's a lot of difference between the old and the new prison."

The Holtze prison opened in 2014.

Zak Grieve was given a life sentence with a non-parole period of 20 years for the murder of Ray Niceforo in Katherine in 2011, despite a Supreme Court justice finding he did not take part in the killing.

Justice Dean Mildren said he had no choice but to impose the sentence, saying it "was the fault of mandatory minimum sentencing provisions, which inevitably bring about injustice".