A series of mysterious deaths in prisons made the issue of persecution organs functioning, but first and foremost question the effectiveness of controls within the prison system, returned to the newspapers’ headines. In the large part the debate has been concerned with the safety of persons who may have important information regarding ongoing criminal proceedings. Opinions are divergent, and their authors often refer back to fundamental issues. The most important and arousing the strongest emotions ones among them are as follows: where is the limit of permitted prision isolation, and how should the special units for specific categories of offenders operate? The presented study is the result of research entitled “Wstępna ocena funkcjonowania oddziałów dla więźniów niebezpiecznych” (“Introductory assessment of wards for particularly dangerous criminals”) which I carried out in 2007-2008. In the research, I examined the subject of the borders of the prison isolation, with particular emphasis on the effects of its escalation, for those who are the subjects, and for those who are executors of enhanced isolation alike. The research consisted of 10 case studies carried out on prisoners, who stayed in the special prison units with a very high degree of isolation for the longest time. Their period of stay ranged from 7 to 14 years. Penitentiary records of these individuals and the material gathered during the in-depth interviews were analysed. In addition to the presentation of the data collected during the research also contains an attempt to present a useful analytic scheme to describe and understand the functioning of this segment of the prison system, which is responsible for the isolation and control of the most dangerous criminal offenders and the most recalcitrant prisoners. The unit analysed was, so-called N ward, treated as an element of the prison culture and culture in general. The primary data source is the materials and documents related to the functioning of this segment of the prison system and the awareness of individuals participating in this social phenomenon. The latter is consistent with the assumptions of humanist criminology, in which an individual experience is a key vehicle for knowledge of the culture, and the knowledge should be searched there. The essence of this approach to the study of social phenomena is a recommendation by F. Znaniecki to study it with “the humanistic factor.” The study reconstructed the origins of wards with a high degree of isolation and it systemic rationalisation. The information collected, justify the hypothesis that the system of N wards in Poland was not prepared well enough. Ultimately there are 16 branches and with over more than 400 specially protected places of imprisonment created, despite the considerable cost, only because they were presented to decision-makers as one of the key instruments to combat the organized crime. Although the data concerning actual construction costs of these wards have never been disclosed, one can assume that they substantially exceeded the amount of 100 million zlotys. Other costs can not be converted into money, one of being the social and psychological degradation of some prisoners. Although in everyday language – and even in scientific texts –the term "dangerous prisoner" is used, use of this term in relation to humans does not seem to be suitable. Firstly, on linguistic grounds, and secondly on the ethical ones. On the level of language it must be assumed that attributive understood "dangerousness" also exists objectively, and therefore it can be detected and can be verified. In this sense, a human cannot be dangerous, because there is no such criteria which would allow to establish it beyond any reasonable doubt. If someone is not convinced by logical considerations one can also refer to the ethical arguments – it is not proper to refer concepts that describe inanimate objects like, for example, dangerous places or tools to humans. To understand the essence of special N wards it is not enough to determine that this is a special place, clearly and substantially isolated from the rest of the prison. It is also necessary to realize that this is also a place separated from the rest of the institution in a purely symbolic dimension. One of this separation aspect is to create a special caste of officers who have access to such branch, and this in turn is connected with special ritual to overcome the physical protection unprecedented elsewhere. Embedding "N" branches in the prison system has proved to be difficult, firstly because the prison did not have a ready model of execution of the sentence in such special circumstances, and it did not have specially trained staff as well. Moreover, the scale of investment (16 wards) and the high costs have put the prison system in a difficult situation when number of serious offenders who should be isolated in such branches began to fall and, consequently, the “super-cells” were empty. Seeking a solution to this problem, the prison system formed a mechanism for granting the status of the so-called "dangerous prisoners" based on the internal prison criteria. Presented text also contains an analysis of experience of the prisoners themselves. Even if some of them expressed positive views about their stay in the N wards, it was mostly the praise of solitude, not of the strict isolation. The process of isolation has led in some prisoners to social and psychological degradation, manifested for example in disturbed relationships with their families or in ritual behaviors. Almost all of the respondents expressed a fear of leaving the special wards and of return to normal prison life. The conclusion of the study can be summarized in several points. First, the system of N wards was formed on the rising tide of fight against organized crime, resulting with significant financial and system costs. This process was not a deliberate one and was not prepared well enough. Secondly, the prison system has created mechanisms for creation of a so-called “dangerous prisoners” both to fill the existing special prison cells and to fill the need to justify their existence. Thirdly, the system degrades its clients, that is prisoners classified as “dangerous” more than it should. Fourthly, the prison system has not created a model of execution of sentence in the N wards and the system of leaving the hyperisolation.