Half of the complaints to the Ombudsman come from prison inmates - about 4000 per year.
Human rights lawyer Michael Bott, says more complaints should be resolved by the Corrections Department.
But he says the department is under-funded and this may be why so many complaints go to the Ombudsman.
Deputy Ombudsman Leo Donnelly says prisoners have more time than most people to make complaints.
The office has a budget to handle up to 1200 complaints at any one time. At the moment, it is sitting on 2800 complaints.
