by trained professionals. The staff were cooperative and always willing to dialogue with members of the delegation. Although several needs were noted, this psychiatric hospital had various workshops and gardens, where inmates could engage in various activities. 203.Unfortunately, the delegation received a very negative impression of the other psychiatric care centre visited: the Zimatlán Prison Annex in Oaxaca. Physical conditions at this facility were utterly inhuman and degrading. Some patients were forced to sleep on the floor in overcrowded and very poorly maintained cells. The staff of the institution was inadequate to serve the people confined there. The delegation noted with concern that a renovation plan is needed in order for this facility to provide the minimum services required for the inmate population. The hospital staff, who cooperated fully with the Subcommittee delegation, acknowledged the inadequacy of the infrastructure and the services provided. They also expressed concern to the delegation about the insufficiency of the staff to meet the needs of the inmates. The delegation noted that patients did not have sufficient space to sleep or engage in any kind of activity. Their daily activities, as observed by the delegation, were limited to spending time in the courtyard, where there were not even any benches to sit on, only a few chairs and a small television. Hygiene conditions were deplorable. 204.The Subcommittee wishes to remind the State party of prisoners’ rights with regard to health, which are set out in the standards and principles of a soft law (emerging law) nature established by the specialized agencies of the United Nations. 205.The delegation found that the physical conditions in which patients lived in the Zimatlán Prison Annex were inhumane and degrading. The Subcommittee considers that this situation should be remedied immediately, as the delegation said in its preliminary observations. The Subcommittee urges the State party to take the necessary steps to restructure the facility as soon as possible in order to ensure that the people confined there have decent living conditions. The Subcommittee also urges the State party, in the event that restructuring the facility is not possible, to transfer the inmates to another location. The Subcommittee has taken note of the State party’s response to the delegation’s preliminary observations on the visit and requests the competent authorities to supply detailed information on the current situation of these people. C.Legal concepts and practices 1.Flagrante delicto and equipollent flagrancy 206.Arrest in flagrante delicto is recognized as a legitimate basis for detaining a person who is apprehended in the act of committing an offence or in the immediate aftermath, while the person is still within sight and is fleeing the scene of the crime, or where there are grounds for suspecting that items associated with the recent crime are in the person’s possession. 207.The Subcommittee wishes to refer to the observations made by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in the report on its visit to Mexico regarding the concept of “equipollent flagrancy”. Under this concept, a person can be arrested not only while an offence is being committed or just after the offence has been committed, but also when the person is found within 48 to 72 hours of the commission of the offence and there are objects, signs or other evidence showing that they have just committed the offence. The arrest can be made without a warrant simply on the basis of a complaint or statements by witnesses. The Subcommittee concurs with the view expressed by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention: this assumption of flagrancy is excessive in terms of the time that is allowed to elapse and is incompatible with the principle of presumption of innocence and the legal requirement for a lawful arrest warrant. 208.The Subcommittee has been informed by various sources that the concept of equipollent flagrancy has been used in some Mexican states as a basis for making mass arrests of people who are charged with some criminal offence without having been caught in the act and without any objects linking them to the crime having been found. While the modifications to the criminal justice system introduced by the Constitutional reform of 2008 eliminated equipollent flagrancy, the delegation heard from various sources that this concept continues to be applied in the State party as a means of criminalizing social protest and detaining large groups of people without anyone’s having been caught committing a crime and without any evidence that a crime has been committed, and certainly without establishing the basic elements for prosecution (means, time and place of the offence). According to the information received by the delegation during its visit to the State party, the injustice of these arrests has been compounded by the inability of many of those arrested to pay the high bail fees imposed, resulting in situations of unnecessary detention. 209.The delegation was informed that authorities who make arrests without having to obtain an arrest warrant are not obliged to bring the person arrested before a judge; rather, such persons are turned over to the Office of the Public Prosecutor. The Subcommittee believes that persons in such situations may face real risks to their physical and mental integrity. 210.In the Subcommittee’s view, any situation that may entail arbitrary or unlawful detention implies not only violation of the right to liberty, but also cruel treatment of the detainee. The Subcommittee believes that the abuse of these legal concepts can only be indicative of weak capacity to investigate crimes and believes that the improper and repeated use of arrest in flagrante delicto and quasi-flagrante delicto is a result of a lack of capacity at both federal and local levels with respect to the investigation of crimes. Such unlawful detentions can give rise to cruel practices. 211.The Subcommittee recommends that the Government of Mexico strengthen the necessary capacity in relation to the investigation of crimes at both federal and local levels and that it desist from unlawful detention practices that do not qualify as arrest in flagrante delicto and that evade the requirement for an arrest warrant for arrests not made in flagrante delicto. 2. Arraigo (a)The concept of arraigo