The New South Wales Government has announced a review into behaviour management in the state's juvenile detention centres, amid concerns some young offenders are being kept in their cells for up to 23 hours a day as punishment.

Under risk-management plans, juvenile detainees who have, for example, assaulted other detainees or staff can be confined to their rooms for a lengthy period of time as punishment.

Restrictions are decided on a case-by-case basis by Juvenile Justice, but the ABC understands some detainees have been made to wear handcuffs during their recreation hour or are banned from mixing with others.

Greens MP David Shoebridge said the practice constituted abuse.

"Locking young people in their rooms by themselves for prolonged periods of time is nothing short of abuse," he said.

"Indeed it fits the definition of solitary confinement that has been accepted now for four decades as an international human rights standard."

Corrections Minister David Elliot said the detainees were not left alone and staff checked on them every 20 minutes.

"This can increase to continuous one-on-one supervision, if the young person is considered to be high risk or high needs," he said.

"At all times detainees are able to communicate with Juvenile Justice and Justice Health staff.

"Detainees can also arrange contact with the NSW Ombudsman, official visitors and family members."

Review to consider use of confinement

But Mr Elliot said a juvenile justice review would look at all behaviour management practices in the state's juvenile detention centres.

The Corrections Minister has also asked the inspector of custodial services to look at the use of confinement in juvenile justice centres.

"NSW has a number of oversight and complaint mechanisms in place for juvenile justice facilities," he said.

"This includes an independent inspector of custodial services who is tasked with reviewing adult and juvenile facilities and reporting the findings to parliament.

"Inspector Fiona Rafter has been reviewing the use of force within NSW juvenile justice facilities since May, and today I have asked her to expand her terms of reference to include the use of confinement."

Mr Shoebridge has called for a Special Commission of Inquiry into the issue but said, at a minimum, the ombudsman should conduct the investigation.

Earlier this year, Mr Elliot told a budget estimates hearing that 13 juvenile justice prisoners were kept confined for more than 24 hours as punishment in NSW last year, but he later wrote to correct the transcript saying there had only been one case.

Mr Elliot was being grilled about the issue in the wake of the ABC Four Corner's program's revelation of abuse at the Don Dale juvenile detention centre in the Northern Territory.

He denied there were any parallels to be found between the two systems.

"Please don't liken this jurisdiction with the Northern Territory," he said.

Isolation and punitive approaches 'quite dangerous'

Professor Louise Newman from the University of Melbourne said isolation for long periods of time is highly stressful for children and different strategies should be used to help young people deal with their own behaviour.

"I think the fallacy about behaviour management and particularly these sorts of quite punitive approaches is that occasionally and probably more often than not, they worsen problems, they increase the young person's distress and agitation," Professor Newman said.

"They are quite dangerous, they can lead to escalating destructive behaviour so they don't actually fulfil the promise of getting behaviour under control."

National Children's Commissioner Megan Mitchell said she was concerned with what appeared to be routine use of isolation and solitary confinement.

"It's very important to have skilled staff in these facilities who understand child development and child trauma and how that manifests itself," she said.

Ms Mitchell said isolation is something that can be used in some circumstances to keep the young person safe or to keep other young people safe, but it should be for a very short period of time while the situation de-escalates.

"From my perspective there is no reason or rationale to keep children in prolonged isolation for extensive periods of time," she said.