Billy Bragg writes open letter to Justice Minister over guitar ban in prisons

A group of influential musicians have hit out at the ban on guitars in UK prisons, with Billy Bragg leading the campaign to promote the use of music in rehabilitation.

Bragg has penned an open letter to Justice Minister Chris Grayling, urging him to overturn the ban on guitars in prison. At present, steel-strung guitars are not permitted in prison due to safety fears, but Bragg has questioned whether this ban has increased the number of suicides in prison, along with a recent ruling which banned books from prisons in the UK.

Bragg has been joined by Johnny Marr, Dave Gilmour and Ricahrd Hawley in his campaign. Read his full letter to Chris Grayling below.

"As musicians, we are concerned to hear that the use of steel-strung guitars is being prohibited in prisons. We believe that music has an important role to play in engaging prisoners in the process of rehabilitation. However, this ability will be seriously undermined if inmates are unable to practice between group sessions.

As most guitars currently owned or used by inmates in our prisons are steel-strung acoustics, this ruling will mean that these instruments are kept under lock and key until time for a supervised session, if the prison in question has provision for musical tuition.

The stipulation that only nylon strings can be used will not alleviate this situation. There are several practical reasons why nylon strings are not suitable for a steel-strung acoustic guitar, not least the differing methods by which nylon and steel strings are attached to the instrument.

We understand that there must be security protocols when steel strung guitars are used in prisons, but up until this ruling, access has been at the discretion of staff.

There has been a worrying rise in the number of self-inflicted deaths in the period since this new ruling was introduced. From October 2013, when only one death was reported, there have been a total of 50 self-inflicted deaths, over double the figure for the same period last year.

We would like to know whether the recent changes to the treatment of prisoners – which includes restrictions on books and steel-strung guitars – could be at the root of this steep increase in fatalities.

We urge the Minister for Justice, Chris Grayling, to urgently look into the causes of the rise in self-inflicted deaths in prison since the introduction of the recent Prison Service Instruction and to explain why steel strung guitars have been singled out for exclusion."