Violent rioting at a Northern Territory youth detention centre that eventually saw detainees tear-gassed could have been avoided, the National Children's Commissioner believes.

Key points: Formal monitoring of NT youth detention centres began last week

Formal monitoring of NT youth detention centres began last week Steps are being taken nationwide to ensure compliance with an anti-torture treaty

Steps are being taken nationwide to ensure compliance with an anti-torture treaty This could prevent riots such as one that occurred at Darwin's Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in November, one expert says

But while the incident was disturbing, it was far from isolated — both in the Territory and nationwide.

In Queensland for example, guards at a youth detention centre were found to have handcuffed a teenage detainee shortly after he attempted suicide, leaving him unconscious and convulsing.

Currently, there is no national approach or standard of overseeing youth justice systems in Australia.

National Children's Commissioner Megan Mitchell said that has left each state and territory to develop its own processes, some of which she said amounts to a patchwork of monitoring with confusion and overlap.

She said her investigation in 2016 found there was no jurisdiction meeting international protocols.

But in her opinion, these disturbing events could have been prevented — and could be prevented in the future — if Australia had stronger laws and better methods of overseeing prisons.

This could soon become a reality, as Australia takes steps to ensure compliance with the anti-torture treaty it recently ratified.

Children's Commissioner Megan Mitchell said national oversight of youth justice systems was needed. ( ABC News )

'Earlier signs of unrest' may have been detected

Last week, the Office of the Children's Commissioner NT announced it had begun formally monitoring detention facilities for the first time.

It said this would allow them to provide "constructive and achievable" recommendations to relevant government agencies and service providers on how to improve immediate and long term conditions.

It involves things like assessing the wellbeing of detainees and staff, the services, provision of education and programs.

Ms Gwynn said formal monitoring took a "preventative, proactive approach" to help both the detainees and the staff.

"So we're not looking back at history, we don't get a complaint for something that happened three months ago, and then have to track through footage, go speak to people. If we see something, if we're told something we can deal with it immediately and we can remedy that as quickly as possible."

However, the Territory Government has failed to guarantee the NT Children's Commissioner Colleen Gwynne "free and unfettered access" to its youth detention centres through legislation, despite it being recommended by the royal commission in 2017.

She said the Government never denied her access to the centre in the past, but that the legislation should become more "contemporary" to satisfy the royal commission's recommendations.

While Ms Gwynne secured an urgent agreement from Government to inspect the tumultuous Don Dale Youth Detention Centre as often as she wanted following a November riot, Ms Mitchell said if the legislation had been in place she may have been able to stop the incident altogether.

"She might have been able to pick up earlier signs of unrest among the detainees and the staff … and work with the Government to avoid the riot in the first place," she said.

Last year it was revealed that a distressed teenage boy at the Cleveland Youth Detention Centre in Townsville was handcuffed by staff shortly after a suicide attempt.

The Queensland Government fought for nine months to keep the records secret, with the Department of Justice arguing their release would jeopardise the security, order and industrial relations inside the Townsville facility.

But the Queensland Information Commissioner disagreed and eventually forced the department to release the documents.

It was another example of an incident that could have been avoided had a national standard been in place.

"When we looked at the mechanisms across the country back in 2016 we found wide variations in approaches and we also found that no state or territory could at the time meet the requirements of the international protocol that we've since adopted as a nation," she said.

NT Children's Commissioner Colleen Gwynne. ( ABC News )

Anti-torture treaty ratified

Legal experts like RMIT University's Professor Bronwyn Naylor hope Australia's ratification of an anti-torture treaty — the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) — will see these national standards established and make Australian jails more transparent.

OPCAT, which Australia signed on to in 2017, specifies that proper oversight of detention centres means functional independence, the ability to monitor places of detention randomly, to have full access to those places, that visitors have the relevant expertise and the necessary resources and a legislative mandate.

Following the ratification, the Commonwealth Ombudsman is currently coordinating an audit of all the states and territories' monitoring and inspection bodies.

It is expected to shine further light on the variations between each jurisdiction and what measures have been taken to improve each system and ensure they are OPCAT-compliant.

Professor Naylor said the audit will involve working out what monitoring bodies exist in each jurisdiction, which are most effective and compliant and see if one or a combination could work together.

She highlighted WA's Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services as working effectively.

"New South Wales, Tasmania and late last year the ACT has also set up prisons inspectorates so they're probably the closest to OPCAT compliant that we have in Australia," she said.

"Although, there are other agencies like Ombudsman Offices such as in Victoria that do really valuable monitoring and inspections but they're not setup or funded to do that preventative inspecting, which is arriving regularly and hoping to prevent abuses from taking place, which is this kind of gold standard that we're looking for."

This lack of clear oversight can be seen in other institutions charged with caring for the nation's most vulnerable people — including aged care, immigration, forensic psychiatric and disability facilities.

Each state and territory will have to determine if their oversight of other detention environments are OPCAT compliant and what changes will be necessary.

"We've been seeing plenty of evidence across places of detention in Australia … that there isn't that oversight in the way that there needs to be to protect really vulnerable people," said Professor Naylor.

The Territory Government said it would consider any request from an Independent Officer to enhance their capabilities and oversight to perform their duties.

It said it was working towards creating a Single Act for children and young people to complement the Children Commissioner's Act.

The NT Government also said it would work with the Children’s Commissioner to ensure that she has unfettered access to both facilities.