Offenders in Victoria's youth justice centres are committing more violent crimes and a new report has found the system is failing both them and the community.
A parliamentary committee report released on Tuesday has made 39 recommendations, including calling for more intervention, rehabilitation and diversion programs at the state's youth justice centres.
"In recent years the cohort of young people who are incarcerated has changed," committee chair Margaret Fitzherbert wrote in the report's foreword.
"Most notably, we now see young offenders whose first contact with youth justice is a serious or violent criminal act."
The committee found the ratio between remandees and sentenced offenders had flipped - in the past 80 per cent in custody were sentenced, but now sentenced youths make up only 20 per cent.
The report found high staff turnover and absenteeism, a breakdown in the professional relationships between staff and young people, excessive and improper use of isolation and lockdowns, deficient record keeping and "vastly inadequate" mental health services.
Four MPs on the nine-member committee wrote two separate minority reports.
Labor government MPs Jaclyn Symes, Daniel Mulino and Adem Somyurek noted in their report that the committee started its inquiry months after an independent review commissioned by the government had started.
In the time it has taken for the committee's final report to be tabled, that independent review finished and the government has committed $50 million in overhauling measures, the MPs wrote.
Greens MLC Nina Springle's report also called for more action based on human rights and rehabilitation through therapeutic care.
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