There's "a gaping hole" in drug and alcohol services to treat teenage offenders with severe addictions, a Children's Court magistrate has told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry.
Magistrate Jennifer Bowles, presenting her independent research to the youth justice inquiry in Melbourne, said Victorian kids "are really missing out" on the drug treatment they need.
She wants to see young people with serious substance abuse problems assessed at court and given the chance to enter a voluntary treatment regime.
If that doesn't work - which she said was often the case - the court wouldn't sentence the young person and would instead send them to a secure facility for treatment.
"I'm not critical of the current services. I'm just saying there's not enough - there's a gaping hole," Ms Bowles told the inquiry on Wednesday.
She said the treatment centre should be "homely" and not punitive like youth custody, allowing a young person to gain trust and get tailored help with their drug and alcohol issues before it leads to further offending.
Former Victoria Police chief commissioner Neil Comrie also presented his report into youth justice to the inquiry and said more teens were entering the system for violent crimes.
"These are young people who have no respect for authority or anything in general," Mr Comrie told the inquiry on Wednesday.
"I think social media has played a very significant role in this."
Mr Comrie said teens were using social media to create loose "gang" affiliations, making it difficult for authorities to track them in detention and out on the street.
He also said in one case during a youth prison riot, management conceded to demands from teens to be moved to a different facility, and he urged bosses to stick strictly to the rules.
Mr Comrie's review found security at Victoria's youth prisons was inadequate, staff training and equipment was lacking and there were too many violent offenders mingling with low risk inmates.
The sector has been under massive scrutiny following the riots and a mass escape from the Malmsbury youth justice centre in January.
Riots also rendered parts of Parkville uninhabitable, so the government moved some detainees to a unit in the adult Barwon prison.
The inquiry heard there were still no figure on legal fees for unsuccessfully defending three court actions over the government's controversial decision to move teenagers to the adult prison.
It's the second time the government has been unable to provide a figure on legal costs for the three court actions, with departmental bosses also unable to give it to a recent budget estimates committee.
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