A rare gem for those who want to take their prison role play to the next level and much more!
The Edge is a private dungeon with an authentic and fully functional jail located about 35 mins outside of Santa Cruz on a large private property in the mountains. The drive there is a bit of a journey in and of itself because the roads are pretty twisty and turny, but finding the place isn't too hard with the specific directions given by the owner.
The building is locked, secluded and the property is very private. That being said there are houses nearby and it’s not a public dungeon, so you can’t just show up without a reservation, and you most certainly can't show up in bondage gear and parade around outside like a weirdo before you go in. You can get as freaky as you want once you’re inside, though.
There’s a main house where the owner of the building lives (that you will not have access to), and the jail has its own door with a key code to enter, and is a completely self contained area. There are no windows and no indication from the outside that anything weird is going on inside.
Totaling around 1000 square feet, once inside, the prison space is broken down into a few key areas that are all painstakingly constructed to be as authentic as possible from the cinder block walls and jail cell doors to the functioning prison toilets. With great attention to detail the result is an immersive experience that is extremely rare in the US.
INTAKE AREA:
From the second you enter the jail everything in on theme. Right inside the door there’s a very official looking desk with monitors, and a general prisoner processing ara. Behind the desk is a wall full of handcuffs, locks, chains and various items that will help you gain control of your prisoner. In addition to a DSG shock collar there’s a big rowdy key ring with all the keys to the cells doors (for some reason I found that really sexy that there are giant keys and everything locks. There’s also a helpful clipboard with instructions on how all the lights work, and the rules and helpful information like how to operate the exhaust fan in the padded room.
Next to the desk on the wall is a control panel with toggle switches that give the guard control of all the lights in the various areas of the jail. As well as some knobs that turn on the fan to keep air circulating (there are no windows- which is a good thing).
There’s an ipad on the desk that gives you further control of all of the lights. You can dim certain lights and change the color to anything you want. I didn’t think at first that would be very important, but it ended up really adding to the mood. On the desk is monitor with all the CCTV cameras so you can see the individual areas of the jail. Each cell has a camera so you can keep close tabs on your prisoners when you’re not right in front of them.
There’s a locker area with other odds and ends you might find useful like some authentic prison food trays for feeding your prisoner horrible things, and some official looking personal belonging bags.
There’s a little hallway straight ahead that leads to a general dungeon area that I’ll talk more about later. The door to the dungeon area has the height chart for photographing your prisoner (also an important detail). For some reason I like the stenciled numbers because it seems more institutional to me. I believe on my way out I saw one of those little boards you can hold up with letters, but we never got around to using that.
Sir made the whole prisoner processing part super fun for me. He started in his full prison guard uniform and I had on one of my typical “slutty casual” outfits in part to just be sexy looking for Sir but also to cause max hassle in getting me into my prison uniform. Sir is pretty great with all the little details, so he even made up a general intake form that looked all official so he could take my fingerprints. It sounds super strange and it’s hard for me to articulate what’s so sexy about it, but I’ve always liked paperwork and documentation, so this really did it for me. After that we went over to the height door for pics. It was fun to act all sassy like this is all some huge hassle and I shouldn’t be here.
To someone who doesn’t have my exact combo of fetishes these seem like unimportant little side quests that can be skipped, but these details really made it super fun for me!! During the fingerprinting I did a lot of giggling that could be mistaken for me thinking the whole thing is silly and possibly not sexy, but all of it was sexy and I was just super excited about getting to be a mega weirdo for the weekend.
Even if you don’t do a bunch of paperwork like we did, any sort of “prisoner intake” process can be a nice gentle way to start off the play and get into the right mindset for some pretty serious jail time.
CELL BLOCK:
After all my paperwork was processed the next step was getting me into my full bondage uniform so I can be useful. To the left of the desk is another sliding door that leads to the actual cell block. There’s a sliding wooden door and then a locking jail cell door that makes it possible to lock down the entire cell block (just in case being locked in a cell isn’t enough security). The walls are cinderblock and the floor is concrete. Even the paint color scheme is just like something you would see in a real jail. It's impossible to look at it and not be in awe of the amount of thought and work that went into this place.
PADDED ROOM:
I’m normally very submissive and fairly obedient during play because that's just how I’m wired, but I had been wanting to experiment with maybe being a bit more sassy and putting up a fight, so the padded cell was a great location to try that out. I wasn't being very cooperative during the intake process, and I was making it hard for Sir to get my outfit off and gear on me so the braid in my hair made a good handle and he dragged me down the cell block to the padded cell at the end.
The door is a big heavy Isolation cell door with super thick padding on the inside so when the door is closed every surface is padded. The padding on the walls and ceiling are a little more firm (reminded me of the tumbling pads we used in gymnastics when I was a kid) and the “floor” part is really thick and squishy enough to make is a good place to get rowdy. With the door closed all the padding lines up and there are no free spaces. It’s a completely padded room with no expense spared. The mats feel very institutional and have a plastic outer shell that’s easy to clean.
The room is completely soundproof so it’s good there’s a camera in there for the guard to check on you as no amount of screaming will get you any attention. I also wanted to point out that at the guard station there’s an exhaust fan you will need to turn on to keep the air circulating in the room. I don’t think you would like die in there if you didnt turn it on, but they do specifically point out that it needs to be on while in use. It can get pretty warm in there, so it’s a good thing to have.
Once the door is closed there are no door knobs or light switches (the light is controlled from the desk). When the light is off its extremely dark and silent in there. This kind of sensory deprivation is not my kink, but I can appreciate that if it IS your kink this is a fantastic place to experience it. I’ve never seen a completely dark and soundproof room anywhere I’ve played. I found that the pads can give you a safe and confined feeling but I can see how they might cause a little claustrophobia depending on your inclination. This is one of those things you won’t totally know until you try it, but no matter how you think you will react I would recommend checking it out. It’s also a nice comfy place to sleep if you have a lot of people in your group and run out of beds.
To be honest, I didn’t think the padded room would be very useful for us (because I’m not really into extreme sensory deprivation) but it turned out to be a great location to do a little take down scene! The pads make it a safe location for some rough handling and you don’t have to worry about sluts getting hurt on the concrete floor. I dont have the measurements of the room off hand, but there’s plenty of space in there to get a lots of resisting handled.
I about gave Sir a heart attack because I had on knee high boots with sharp heels, and those pads are clearly custom and super expensive so that little scene started with me being pushed down on the mats and boots getting ripped off. Turns out I really don’t need THAT much rough handling because and unexpected hard slap to the face pretty much fixed me.
After a hard face slap I switched tactics to super slutty prisoner and offered to let him fuck me as long as he would let me go. It was super sexy to me for him to ignore my offers and continue to add layers of bondage making me feel more and more restricted and more submissive with each layer.
By the end I had on my full slut prison uniform: shock collar for easy corrections and leash for leading around. Bicep wraps with boot cuffs to keep my arms back, and a bar behind my back as another way to keep my arms out of the way. Leather mitts go on my hands to keep me from getting too grabby, and a bondage belt is added. Then handcuffs are threaded through my bondage belt and doubled over and locked on to the cuff wraps that are layered over the mitts. As if that wasn’t enough, a pussy shock belt is added (both the neck unit and pussy unit give shocks at the same time and at the same intensity). Then ankle cuff wraps and leg irons are added with a chain that goes back up to the bondage belt. It's a pretty perfect uniform, and is all in a very institutional brown and white color scheme that ends up getting really dirty and rapey looking after some play. I love how it looks and feels so much!
ISOLATION/SOLITARY CELL:
After I’m in my full uniform its a short trip over to the isolation cell. For me this is where all the best play always goes down! It’s basically a cell inside a cell and there's a big metal door that can be shut and locked making it (nearly) completely dark in there. It’s not as dark as the padded cell- thank god. There’s a little food tray slot that you could open to let a little extra light in there, and of course there’s an overhead light that can be controlled from the front desk if you want a light in there.
I’m not sure where they got the cell door from, but the way it’s set up really reminded me of the Alcatraz isolation cell (minus all the pissed off ghosts) if you’ve ever been there. There’s no toilet and no bed in there like the other 2 cells have. There are multiple tie down points for any sort of bondage you can dream up.
Pro tip- if there aren't any in there already you’ll want to grab a couple of the foam squares from the dungeon area because concrete don't fuck around if you're wanting to do some heavy duty play and crawling around. It doesn’t take away from the immersive feeling and will greatly extend how long you can hang out on the floor in there.
I really love the isolation cell because it’s so bare and inescapable. The two doors make me feel extra locked up and helpless. There’s just enough room between the outer solid door and the cell door so Sir could sit in a folding chair and do some heavy duty interrogation between getting his cock sucked through the bars and giving me shock collar shocks until I cry.. If I was lucky I was invited to bend over and get fucked through the bars, but only enough to make me want more and then the strap was locked back on and I was back to only being useful as a mouth fuckhole and making sad faces. I loved that all this can be done without opening the actual cell door, and letting me out and that feels super sexy and objectifying.
If for some reason if he took me out of the cell he always made me turn away like they do on TV. I love those little protocols and details. Then he’s take me to another cell for a beating then throw me back in my sad little isolation cell.
When he was done with me for awhile he would get up and shut the big door and leave me in the dark. I used that time to stand up and stretch my legs, but I was still in all my bondage. Sir used some of that time to sit at the guard desk and watch my reactions on the monitor as he gave me some random shocks for no reason at all. I was surprised that the shock unit remote worked through the big thick door!
I couldn’t say the same for the vibrating butt plug I had in. We were testing out the Hush butt plug which is controlled with an app, but when he walked away and shut the door it would disconnect (then reconnect as soon as he came back in- which was pretty fun). I mention this as an FYI just because I just don't think most remote control toys are going to work well through that massive door.
The isolation cell is really fun for abuse and crying and being left alone.
It was sexy to be in the dark cell and get random shocks and not be able to do anything about it. I loved hearing Sir walking in the hallway and hear the keys on his belt and wondering if I’m just going to be sucking cock or if he has some other horrible idea that I can’t stop him from doing.
STANDARD CELLS:
The next two cells are just standard jail cells. We used one of the standard cells for me to sleep in, and the other cell we took out the bed and added a spanking bench so that cell could be as a place for beatings and some general police brutality.
The cells are about as authentic as they can get. Both of them have a cot and a working sink/toilet combo like the ones you see in jail cells on TV. Every little detail adds to the experience for me and makes it more real and more sexy. Even something as simple as the paint chipping on the bars is hot because it feels like something you would see in a real jail.
The cot has a thin plastic covered pad on it, some well worn sheets and a scratchy blanket. The pillow has a pillowcase on it, but it's one of the awful plastic pillows you would expect in jail it’s like smashed flat and super uncomfortable. I hated it so much! (in a good way)
Since real life play is different from fantasy I still got to have some of my usual things for bedtime. We have a pretty nice little bedtime routine that starts with me bringing him whatever gear I would like to sleep in (for slut prison I sleep in shock collar, bondage belt, pussy shock belt and wrist and ankle wraps) and he puts in on me and then locks me in my cage for the night (or in a jail call when in slut prison). I always have a few specific things- a couple super soft hello kitty blankets, my fox fur blanket, and my fox fur bear named Bumble. I also have my cell phone handy because that's what safe BDSM looks like in real life. As a side note - I had good cell reception the whole time (I have Verizon)
I asked Sir to leave the lights on when I went to sleep because it's COMPLETELY dark in there without any windows, and I don't care for that so he left the hall lights on and that worked out pretty well.
In theory, sleeping in a cell was was going to be a little nicer than my usual cage because I had more room to move around, but the bed was truly AWFUL. I was definitely still very tired when Sir woke me up the next morning with the page (vibrate) button on the shock collar. I didn’t move fast enough to get on my knees at the cell door for immediate cock in my mouth - so of course I got some follow up shocks.
SHOWER CELL:
The shower cell is actually the first cell you will see when entering the cell block. It is super basic and is exactly what you would expect to see in a prison. Literally comprising of just some pipes on the wall with a little shower head, and a drain in the floor. There’s no privacy, so it’s super authentic and super awful. It’s the only shower in the facility, so if you plan on having a shower at any point, this is where it’s going to happen.
For some added fun there's a hose and multiple tie-down points so if your prisoner doesn’t want to shower you can just position them how you want them and hose them off.
No real bathrooms, but that might not be a downside to people who want to stay in character, but for me, my makeup routine gets pretty complicated and I need all sorts of mirrors and lights. I ended up just bringing lights and a mirror from home.
ADMIN ROOM:
On a similar note and as far as meals go, there's not really a place to formally cook any food. Hidden as a sliding door next to the main cell block door there is a small admin room. There’s a microwave and a small refrigerator, but you can just go into town and stock up on sandwiches and things from the grocery store. The room also has a sink and serves somewhat like a larger janitor’s closet storing the necessary yet less sexy gear for general operation and maintenance.
DUNGEON ROOM:
If you walk back out of the cell block and head down the hallway past the lockers you will come to a large dungeon room. They have an impressive array of toys that make this place fun even if there wasn’t a fully functional jail attached! We definitely appreciate the high end toys, and this place is full of lots of great toys and probably a lot of things you want to try but will never own.
AMENITIES/TOYS:
-Cuffs, Collars, Straps, all kinds of restraints in both leather and metal
-Hoods, Gags, Blindfolds, Gas-Masks
-Body Bags / Sleep sacks, Straight jackets
-Violet wand, Shock collar, Milking Machine
-Various floggers, whips, canes, and paddles
-Dungeon bed
-Bondage chairs (multiple styles)
-Cages (multiple styles)
-Bondage Table with Rack functionality
-Gurney
-2 Powered Hoists with suspension bars
-TV / sound system - great for hooking up porn via HDMI
-Wifi (although I had good cell reception and didn't end up using it)
-Lounge leather Sofa and Chair
-And plenty more, these are just some highlights
It’s impossible to have enough time to use everything, but it’s nice that you don’t need to bring all your stuff from home if traveling from a far away location. I always have a giant pile of super custom gear because that’s how I roll, but if I HAD to travel light, I could easily survive in this dungeon.
Although the dungeon space isn’t tiny, it is so well supplied with gear that you may need to move things around depending on your scene. All things considered the Edge Dungeon portion makes quite the reasonable balance of size vs possibility offerings.
Luckily California generally has nice weather, but there should be some consideration to seasons as the jail nature of the construction makes insulation a little more tricky. Not a deal breaker, just noting visitors will need to utilize space heaters and AC accordingly depending on the climate of the time.
The Edge provides you with the opportunity for complete fetish immersion in an authentic jail setting. Even if you don’t specifically have a “prison” fetish I think anyone could have fun here since it covers a lot of fetish variables along the way. It’s a great place for couples, small groups and Domme sessions (gotta bring your own Domme, though). Lots of porn producers and photographers have shot here as well. We will certainly be visiting there again, and I would recommend that everyone adds it to their bucket list!
If you made it this far, you may be interested in some backstory on the Edge’s history. A starter blurb on the creation:
Fueled by my life-long BDSM passion and with the help of many experienced kink friends I have constructed a 1000 sqft playspace consisting of a 3 cell ‘vintage’ jail including an isolation cell, a sound-proof padded room, an intake/administration area and a large dungeon space filled with gears to fulfill every fantasy. The process from concept to completion took about 3 years.
The effort came with many challenges; searching for a private location, finding the right design and materials (sourced from all over the US.) and finally bringing it together in construction. My foremost requirement was that everything has to be real - the jail should not be a movie set but no-escape solid.
Bonus pictures thanks to https://seriousimages.com and https://www.seriousmalebondage.com Check them out for more kinky fun!
And if would like to see a report from a more male play perspective, take a look at
https://metalbondnyc.com/edge-dungeon-a-short-recap-of-my-weekend-experience/
https://metalbondnyc.com/24-hours-in-jail-part-1/?AR
