The Minister responsible for troubled juvenile justice facilities says recent incidents, including in Dubbo, are unacceptable and are being treated seriously by the state government.
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Families, Communities and Disability Services Minister Gareth Ward's comments come after a riot took place in a Central Coast facility last week, detainees caused $150,000 worth of damage to a Dubbo facility in May and a guard's nose was broken by a detainee at a Sydney facility in June.
"Our priority is the safety and security of staff and while an independent review underway will focus on the incident at Frank Baxter, we will apply any learnings...to make positive system-wide changes," Mr Ward said.
That review was commissioned after the 21-hour riot made national headlines and the government started the process of changing the name of Juvenile Justice to Youth Justice on July 1 - a move it has denied was done to combat any negative perceptions people have of the old name.
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Shadow Minister for Juvenile Justice Jihad Dib said it's fair to say the system is in "crisis".
"This [riot] didn't just happen as a one-off thing, just out of the blue... its been building to this," he said.
"There's problems everywhere at the moment, we can't just pretend these are isolated incidents.
"The warning signs have been completely ignored."
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Mr Dib said various people - including staff working in the facilities and parents - had been telling the government about problems in the juvenile justice system for several years.
Not much has been done in response, according to Mr Dib.
"This is a problem that I think keeps getting pushed on to other people," he said.
"I'm hopeful the review is a starting point because it should tell us how we got to this point."
Mr Dib said findings of the review into the riot should be made public and any recommendations should be implemented.
He said while detainees who misbehave should face consequences, the government needed to address why children enter the system and what support is offered to avoid a life of crime when they finish their sentence.
"The system is fixable, but at the moment, if we keep letting it run as its been running where no one is taking responsibility for it, or saying 'I want to fix this', then it will get worse," Mr Dib said.
