The troubled Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre will remain in lockdown until at least Monday but staff on Saturday were returning to duties after walking off the job amid safety concerns.
Movements within the centre are restricted, with escorts required for staff who remain on-site following an alleged attack there on Thursday night.
There are 25 staff from the Malmsbury justice centre currently off work, receiving Workcover payments. Another 35 workers at the Parkville Youth Justice Centre are also on the compensation scheme, according to union estimates.
Community and Public Sector Union spokesman Julian Kennelly on Saturday said the lockdown would remain over the weekend.
"But the officers are in the units and doing restricted movements," he said.
"We don't meet again with site management and the department of WorkSafe until Monday, it's scheduled at the moment.
"But there's good morale amongst the staff, were the last reports. The comment was, they were feeling 'empowered', which is fantastic from the position they were in two days ago."
A spokesman for the Justice Department on Saturday said they were working to progressively return the youth corrections centre to normal operations, and the safety of staff and young people in Malmsbury was imperative.
"Violent behaviour or assaults at youth justice centres are absolutely unacceptable, and the safety of staff, young people and the community is of the utmost importance," the spokesman said.
Two 18-year-olds and a 19-year-old faced the Bendigo Magistrates Court on Friday afternoon, charged with intentionally causing injury, affray and assaulting an emergency worker.
One of the offenders allegedly picked up a plastic cricket bat and lunged at a guard before repeatedly striking him to the head then kicking him when he fell to the ground, according to court documents obtained by Nine News.
When another guard attempted to help his colleague, the teenager then punched that guard to the head "numerous times", court documents state. The bashing left both guards with broken noses, as well as cuts and bruises to their heads.
A prison officer after the attack on Thursday night.Credit: Nine News
Two guards were placed in hospital after the Thursday night attack, but both were discharged by Friday evening. On Wednesday, a guard was stabbed with a broom handle sharpened into a shiv.
The alleged assault was apparently sparked by a prison officer requesting the teenagers pack up volleyball equipment as the centre neared lockdown for the night.
The teenage trio were on Friday afternoon sent to adult prison on remand and are facing a mandatory minimum jail term of six months for assaulting an emergency worker.
Nearly three guards on average are being assaulted each day in Victoria's two youth prisons which are both at capacity, Malmsbury and Parkville, according union figures. The Community and Public Sector Union has called for an "interim" facility to be brought online before the new Cherry Creek site is built in 2021.
The union reports that there have been 311 assaults on staff at youth justice centres in the first 120 days of the year, ranging from physical assaults, to spitting, to threats of violence and verbal abuse.
Twenty-nine detainee-on-detainee assaults were reported on a single day in September.
Mr Kennelly said the opening date of the state's third facility was too far away to ensure the safety of guards and detainees.
"The government is saying we're 14 months away from getting Cherry Creek online, but we think we need a third site in the interim because the level of assault is unacceptable," he said.
The Justice Department spokesman said that the state government had invested $1.2 billion over the past four years to overhaul the youth justice system.
"A number of initiatives improving the safety, security and operation of our youth justice centres are already under way, including the newly modified design for the facility at Cherry Creek".
A spokesman for the Andrews government said on Friday an interim centre was unlikely, and new accommodation units were about to be completed at both the Parkville and Malmsbury centres.
A detainee confronts a prison officer with a cricket bat at Malmsbury Youth Detention Centre. Credit: Nine News