In a letter sent to supporters across the country in recent days, Greens senator Rachel Siewert seeks to use the Don Dale revelations to leverage money for the party's ailing Northern Territory election campaign.

"Many Australians were shocked at the images that came out of Don Dale youth detention centre, showing a child strapped to a mechanical chair with a bag over his head. However – perhaps more tragically still – while that image was shocking in its brutality, it was hardly surprising," she says in the emails.

Liberal and Labor governments have made deliberate decisions over the last 20 years to increase the number of children in detention, she says.

"If you can, please make a donation so we can show the community that this time they can vote for another way."

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called a royal commission into the NT juvenile justice and detention system last month after the ABC's Four Corners aired shocking images of abuse at the Don Dale facility in Darwin.

In her email, Senator Siewert urges people to make a donation "so we can fight against the myth there is no alternative but cruel prison sentences and show the community our plan to invest in prevention".

The Greens are running six candidates in next week's NT election but their fundraising efforts are falling short.

The party had hoped to raise $56,000 but a week from polling day had managed just $6286 – just over 10 per cent of its target.

The Greens have never had a candidate elected to the NT legislature and the party's primary vote at the last election was just 3.3 per cent.

Senator Siewert defended the references to Don Dale in the fundraising effort.

"We're talking about a very significant issue of the large and increasing rates of incarceration of Aboriginal people, particularly young people, we have been working on this issue for years," she told Fairfax Media.

"It is appropriate that we continue to talk about this issue including prevention and the addressing the underlying causes of disadvantage, we need to ensure that we continue to work on this despite a royal commission being called."

Chief Minister Adam Giles and his Country Liberal Party are widely expected to lose government at the August 27 poll.

According to recent polls, Labor leads the CLP 41 per cent to 24 per cent on primary votes – 64 to 36 on a two-party preferred basis.

Some pundits believe the CLP could end up with just one or two members in the 25-seat Legislative Assembly.