A leading Indigenous affairs advocate says racism is to blame for a lack of air conditioning at Western Australia's hottest jail.

Fred Chaney - former Aboriginal affairs minister in the Fraser government and a life-long advocate for reconciliation - says the conditions at WA’s Roebourne Regional Prison would not be tolerated at a mostly white facility. About 90 per cent of Roebourne prisoners are Aboriginal.

Mr Chaney has called on the state government to act before somebody dies in one of the cells.

Temperatures in the jail topped 50 degrees last summer; intolerable conditions for cells that do not have air conditioning.

Mr Chaney said it is an indictment on Australia's treatment of Indigenous people.

“It's part of a pattern in Australia of turning our eyes away from the fact that we, in so many ways, behave as if Aboriginal people are less human than the rest of us,” Mr Chaney said.

“I think racism is manifested in a whole lot of ways.

“Most importantly it's manifested in the fact that people think it's OK to do things to Aboriginal people that you wouldn't do to anyone else.”

He said the attitude towards Indigenous prisoners echoes broader views. 

“Australians hate to hear that being said, but the truth is, if you look at the example of the man from the western desert who died in the back of a non-air-conditioned van with no consequences at all - if that had happened to a dog, there'd have been prosecutions for animal cruelty,” Mr Chaney said.

The comparison goes further, with reports that a facility for stray animals at Port Hedland, 230 kilometres north-east of Roebourne, will be fully air conditioned before the prison.

Aboriginal Legal Service lawyer Alice Barter says the discrepancy is appalling.

“I feel sick to my stomach that we as a community are valuing the lives of dogs and cats higher than Aboriginal people,” she told the ABC.

A spokesperson for Corrective Services Minister Bill Johnston says installing air conditioning at the prison was not a simple exercise, and that current heat mitigation measures in place at the prison are “effective”.