E/CN.4/1996/35/Add.2 page 10 received complaints on some specific aspects, such as the unhealthiness of some areas or the fact that prisoners had to walk through corridors in the men’s section to reach the visitor’s area. 33. With regard to the Comunidad Tiempo Joven Detention Centre for Minors, the Special Rapporteur was shocked at the conditions under which minors assigned to punishment cells are kept. These cells are located in containers. Minors may be kept in them for several days, on a judge’s order, in complete isolation, without being able to practise any activity and without even being allowed to communicate with the staff. In the opinion of the Special Rapporteur, this measure is tantamount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and should not be ordered. Furthermore, the containers should be removed and replaced by a more humane punishment section. B. Arrest on suspicion 34. Article 260 of the Code of Penal Procedure provides for "arrest on suspicion". Under this provision, police officers are authorized to arrest "anyone who is disguised or who in any way makes it difficult to ascertain or conceals his true identity and refuses to identify himself", as well as "anyone who is present at an unusual time or at a place or in circumstances that give grounds to suspect malicious intent, should the explanation given by that person for his or her conduct fail to dispel the suspicion". Article 270 requires the chief of police before whom persons arrested under such circumstances are brought, to keep them under arrest or release them, depending on the explanations they give of their conduct and the circumstances that led to the arrest. 35. According to the information received, the police frequently commit abuses in the exercise of this authority. In working-class districts in particular, they frequently arrest youths, whom they subject to ill-treatment and release within 24 hours without at any point bringing them before a judge. 36. The Special Rapporteur heard considerable criticism of the provisions of article 260, which some people even described as anti-constitutional. A study by the National Compensation and Reconciliation Agency asserts that they "give rise to a whole range of powers, the use of which lies at the discretion of police officers. Thus, police officers are not obliged to arrest persons in such circumstances, but merely ’authorized to arrest them’. This provision clearly goes beyond the framework set by the Constitution, which is restrictive in so far as it stipulates that the police may arrest a person only by virtue of an order from a competent authority or in a case of flagrante delicto". 7/ 37. The Ministry of the Interior informed the Special Rapporteur that the Government would shortly propose a bill to Parliament relating to arrests on suspicion. The bill provides, inter alia, for the addition of a new paragraph to article 260, applicable to the circumstances described above and establishing that: "If a person is not in possession of a document whereby his identity may be ascertained, he may be taken by the police officer to a police station, for the sole purpose of confirming his identity. This must be done as rapidly and expeditiously as possible, and care must be taken at all times to ensure that the person in question is not held with persons under