A/HRC/4/40 page 25 63. The situation of detainees varies and depends on the penitentiary systems and the structures of the judiciary and of the administration of justice in each country. Therefore, in most cases, those who are detained in countries where the system is better structured and well equipped enjoy better conditions while in detention. Nonetheless, it was also noted that even in countries where human rights are largely and institutionally recognized and developed, prisons and detention facilities still fail to fulfil the most elementary needs of the prisoners with regard to food, health and security. 64. A number of developed countries have increased and gathered large amounts of their public financial budget for the development of their penitentiary systems. Unfortunately, this has reinforced the isolation and marginalization of the detainees because their rights are still not fully guaranteed. This could also be a cause of relapse upon release. 65. The detainees are deprived of their basic needs, which has serious repercussions on their rights to life and to physical and moral integrity. Some are also affected by being kept in isolation. Being detained far from their families impedes them from having access to adequate resources. The disengagement of the State obliges the detainees to find other means to ensure their security, nutritional and health needs. As a result, prisons are abandoned to the control of gangs or “mafia” groups, composed mainly of prisoners but also of guards. And what can be witnessed in these detention facilities or prisons are horrifying human rights violations, going from modern forms of slavery to the murder of detainees. 66. The Working Group has already expressed its concern over the impact of precarious conditions of detention on the rights of detainees. In its 2004 annual report, it stated that inadequate conditions of detention have a negative impact on the exercise of rights that fall squarely within its mandate, such as the right to legal defence. This issue has principally affected and weakened pretrial detainees and thereby impaired the principle of “equality of arms”. Under such circumstances, a fair trial can no longer be ensured even if other procedural guarantees are scrupulously observed. States have the obligation to protect the basic rights of people under their custody and cannot disengage themselves from this responsibility. The Working Group wished to recall that pretrial detainees have the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law. In the case of convicts, the punishment is solely the deprivation of liberty and should not imply threats to the life or to the physical integrity or the security of detainees. 67. The Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, adopted by the General Assembly in 1988, establishes that a person detained on a criminal charge shall be entitled to trial within a reasonable time or to be released pending trial. 68. However, the Working Group notes that in some countries, there are detainees who are still waiting to be tried after 12 or 13 years. For some of these persons, the time they spend in pretrial detention will not even count as a credit concerning the sentence to be served. The Working Group raises the question as to whether these detainees will have to be condemned based on the evidence set forth against them or in order to avoid the burden of having to justify the release of a person who has spent such a long time in pretrial detention.