Site Status Update Feb 2010- The site is still active and updates every few days. The video quality has improved for the more recent updates. Each scene is broken down into an average of 4 parts, but with udpates every few days it usually takes a few weeks before the entire scene is online. Price of admission is $29.95 USD for 30 days.
Among spanking / CP paysites, Bars and Stripes is the ultimate "women in prison" resource. But regardless of what your favourite setting might be, it is well worth checking out for its impressive cast of models, large amount of content, good technical craftsmanship and a strong sense of individuality that sets it apart from most competitors. For those knowledgeable about the kink scene, the aforementioned virtues do not come as a surprise - after all, the site is the brainchild of Michael Stamp and Leia-Ann Woods (read my interview with her if you haven't already).
The unique character of "Bars and Stripes" is readily apparent in the terminology and the layout. Members are welcomed as "governors". The video and picture archives are divided into sections like "Cell Block", "Intake Office" and "PT Room". There is also a latest news section, a "prison diary" kept by Mrs. Woods and a suggestion box for members (excuse me, governors). Overall, there is a greater feeling of interaction between the production team and the audience than on most other paysites, which is refreshing to see. The prison theme is elaborated on with many different facets and a charming love for detail and procedure.
The list of inmates reads like a who is who of English (or better, English-speaking) CP performers. In addition to Leia-Ann, there are famous names like Adele Haze, Amelia-Jane Rutherford, Amy Hunter, Niki Flynn and Pandora Blake. For me, the many familiar faces are one of the main attractions. It's just more exciting to watch a scene when you know a bit about the model from her blog, when you have some idea of her personality and favourite fantasies. "Bars and Stripes" do their best to enhance this aura of intimacy. Each inmate has her own profile page with mugshots and information about her in-character background, her crime and sentence. It all adds up to a rather nice women in prison soap opera with a sense of immersion and continuity, starring fleshed-out individuals instead of nondescript bottoms.
There are some 80 scenes in the archives at the time of this writing, each one divided into several video segments - usually around four or five, but sometimes up to eight. The average scene is 15 to 20 minutes long, so you have hours of material to watch, with new clips added regularly. "Bars and Stripes" can easily hold its own against other "high content" sites. My only gripe is that there are no full video files to download, but this is a minor complaint - nothing that a freeware joiner program can't fix. All clips are in .wmv format and the resolution varies - sometimes 352 x 288 pixels, sometimes 720 x 576. The camerawork and editing are solid and professional, with the CP action captured from different angles (separate "face reaction" clips are available for some sessions). In addition to the videos, there are picture galleries for most of the scenes.
"Bars and Stripes" sessions tend to be longer than what you find on other paysites. Some are spanking movies in their own right - like "Jailbirds", which features three girls and runs for over half an hour. The time is well used: most scenes have a fair amount of exposition and buildup to the actual punishment. With the often snappy dialogue between tops and bottoms, these opening shots add nicely to the intensity - of course, "Bars and Stripes" aren't the only ones who do this, but they do it very successfully and with good dramatic effect. You get the impression that most of the players know each other and feed on each other pretty well.
Obviously, all scenes take place in the context of the prison, but there is quite a wide variety of themes and scenarios: prisoner intakes, inspections, a cavity search, bitch slap catfights between inmates, solitary confinement, visits to the "Punishment Room" and so on. About a dozen different locations, some outdoors. Both M/F and F/F action, with many sessions featuring several tops and / or bottoms. Infractions are avenged by hand, flogger, strap, crop or cane - the whole array. Some punishments are over the knickers, some on the bare, some fully nude. Positions range from the classical OTK or bent over a table to restraining devices such as the one found in the "Punishment Room".
There are quite a few hand spankings and most implements are used in the light to moderate fashion. Severity freaks might be a bit disappointed with "Bars and Stripes", but that is not the point of the site, which has a lot of other strengths. Besides, some of the canings with Leia-Ann are quite vicious and her reactions are always wonderful to watch. And there are enough other "proper thrashings" to keep sadists entertained. The prison setting offers plenty of oppressive dread without venturing into the territory that some continental European producers visit.
Overall, an excellent site and highly recommended. It remains to be seen how "Bars and Stripes" cope with the recent loss of their main star and co-founder Leia-Ann Woods. Can they do what Pink Floyd did after Syd Barrett? I like that comparison... Anyway, it goes without saying that Leia will be sadly missed. But given its creative strength in depth and its cast of other fabulous performers, I see no reason why the site shouldn't continue to put out high quality work for a long time to come.
Since we tend to have something from this site every week in the news, I thought it was about time I took a closer look into the member area. The theme of the site is somewhat intriguing, have a women's prison that features detailed information on each inmate including sentence time and crime committed. The setting is very realistic with cells and beds that complete the atmosphere. Each inmate is dressed alike in their red dress style uniform with black panties.
I enjoy scenes that have a purpose to them with banter that is meaningful and not must meant to fill space. There is no short supply of that in this site as each scene is very entertaining beyond seeing pretty girls get spanked. The site layout is very nice, once again lending itself to a certain realism that makes you feel you are looking at an official prison website. There is a latest news section that seems to have gone by the wayside as it hasn't been updated in nearly a year. Must be one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time but then fell down the ladder of importance. There is a latest update section that gives you a description and quick link to what has been most recently added. I always like these pages, especially if you are a recurring member, as it makes it quick and easy to find what's new.
To access the content of the site, you have two choices. First you may search by inmate (or the Matron). This is a drop down menu of each inmate and when you click on that particular model's name, their page comes up with all the galleries and clips that they are featured in. The second way to access the files is by scene type. There are eight categories to chose from that include initial interviews, cell block, and solitary. For the review I'm going to choose Leia Ann Wood's page to outline how the inmate pages are formatted. When the page loads, the model's name is on the top with several small photos of her holding up her "number sign". Underneath the photos is a description of what her sentence is as well as several paragraphs of background information. An email address is listed for every inmate and the matron, so you can send them personal messages if you so desire. Beneath the contact line, the photo galleries in which Leia is in are listed. Each gallery contains approximately 30 800X600 photos all of which are thumbnailed for your convenience. For each scene, there usually are multiple galleries. For instance, in the scene titled Fight Club, there are 3 galleries total.
Following the galleries is the video selections. You can choose to play the clip as a streaming video or download a higher resolution clip to your hard drive. Newer videos have a screen size of 720 x 576 and a bit rate of 996 kbps. Older ones are 352 x 288 with a bit rate of 691 kbps. Many scenes are split into several parts and there is no single file option after all parts are loaded to the site. There is also a video capture section following the videos that provides more photos at a lower resolution that were taken directly from the videos themselves.
At first I wasn't sure if the prison theme would really suit me, but the site grew on me before long. There is a vast amount of content for a site that's been online for less than 2 years and I like the fact that they have upgraded their video encoding system to provide a larger screen size. The feel of the site is pretty authentic with many great scenes and scenarios. Plus they also have some pretty good looking models to boot. The site offers a decent preview page that gives you a good idea of what kind of material you'll see in the member area as well as a free preview clip. At 29.95 per month, the price is about average for a monthly website membership these days.
Guest Review by Adele Haze 3/28/06
"Bars and Stripes" is a fairly new player on the spanking market, but they have a strong, original voice - and content to match. On our snoop around the premises we have found user-friendly design, hundreds of high-resolution photos, hours of video footage - and heaps of attitude, on the basis of which we can predict a bright future and a place among the big players on the spanking market for this website.
The reviewer cannot claim expertise in the technical side of the production, but we know a clear picture with vibrant colours when we see them. Each video can be viewed online or downloaded for future use. The videos are accompanied by galleries of large, high-quality stills. They are shot using two cameras, and edited to give a facial and a rear view. (Full facial footage is available as a bonus with some videos.)
The site has several features that make it stand out sharply among the others.
Theme - All the materials on B&S revolve around a women's prison with a particularly strict regime. There are established rules and routines for the prisoners to follow, and severe consequences for their breaking. What spanko hasn't watched prison flicks like "The Shawshank Redemption" or "Fortress", fantasizing about remaking it with girls and whippings? Well, "Bars and Stripes" is it: a prison-fantasy paradise. There are also some clips set in the prisoners' past, which is a nice touch and a welcome diversion.
Storylines - The best feature of B&S is that it's structured much like a TV-show: there is an overall plot with many subplots weaved around it, involving a number of distinctive characters, both prisoners and staff. At the centre of the plot there is one Leia-Ann Woods (who is also a creative force behind the production), serving a term for masterminding her criminal husband's Charlie's shady activities. It's Leia-Ann's task to survive without bowing down to the regime, while the guards need to get evidence that would fuel the case against Charlie himself. Members' section includes Leia-Ann's prison diary, updated every few weeks. The subplots revolve around the adventures of the other prisoners. Our favourite stories so far have involved Dublin O'Brien, a prisoner on a mission, and the general mayhem resulting from Leia-Ann's seduction of young Rhiannon. For people with an attention span of more than five minutes, the presence of these storylines is a blessing. Folks who care for nothing but pure action should be happy too: in every clip the action starts right-away, with lengthy build-up only when it also involves some eye candy (Michele's bath, Leia and Rhiannon's kissing and groping, Zena's masturbation session.)
Characters - each model plays only one character throughout; this concerns both prisoners and staff. The girls have personal pages with mug shots, biographies and links to all of the videos and photosets they are in. They have their stories, and act accordingly: are some bold, some timid, and all of them in for more than they'd bargained for. The star among the staff is the prison's Matron (Lucy McLean): a vicious, venomous demon of a woman who revels in bossing the girls around. Even the staff bow to her authority. ("I will throw you to Matron" threatens the Governor (Michael Stamp) when Mrs. Woods gives him cheek: a threat to make even the reviewer quake.) The Governor himself appears in fewer clips than his officers, remaining a sinister behind-the-scenes menace, but he is responsible for the day-to-day running of the establishment and communicating with site members. Our favourite officers are Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Lewis; we hope to see more of both evil bastards (sorry, we mean - gentlemen).
Attention to Detail - "Bars and Stripes" is clearly a labour of love; the quality of spanking material is enhanced with great costumes and sets. Attentive viewers will notice a carefully labelled filing cabinet in the intake office, which blew the reviewer away. More visible details are just as impressive: specially produced prisoners' outfits (short red shifts worn with white socks and black shoes); guards' uniforms (which make for rather dashing guards); the impressive metal bunk bed in the cell set; laminated staff ID cards - all these are the things the producers *could have* got away without acquiring, but their presence makes the final product this much better. A mood-enhancing, gloomy theme tune complements all the action, and has been known to haunt the reviewer after the credits had rolled.
There are several nice touches in the members' section, such as the Governor's weekly letter to the site members, a "suggestion box" for you to drop your ideas in, an address for you to write to the inmates, Matron or the Gov. The material can be sorted by type (such as "intake", "solitary", "life before prison" etc), or by the girl. If we were to express any wishes, it would be that the guards get their own pages as well, for the benefit of female fans; as it is, Matron is the only member of staff whose videos are accessible from one page. (There is probably a good reason for that; undoubtedly, Matron is the most popular of them all.)
The site is not without a flaw, namely, that some of the materials are posted out of sequence: for example, stills can be posted before the video they belong to, or some of the character's photos or videos come up before her intake footage does. We are prepared to be forgiving of this while the site is finding its feet and working out what form of presentation works best.
All in all, we are in love with "Bars and Stripes", particularly because it so clearly works both for men and women. The punishments are firm, but not excessively severe, and there is a nice variety of action and situations. Our favourite videos are "Jailbirds", "Coup de Grass", the Dublin storyline - plus anything with Matron in it.
(And yes, the reviewer is hoping to end up in that prison in the near future.)