{"id":592006,"date":"2026-08-13T12:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T12:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/592006\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T12:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T12:34:10","slug":"alison-chawke-prison-release-raises-serious-questions-says-sinn-fein-td-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/592006\/","title":{"rendered":"Alison Chawke prison release raises \u2018serious questions\u2019 says Sinn F\u00e9in TD \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> justice spokesman Matt Carthy<\/a> has said the early release from prison<\/a> of Alison Chawke after she was jailed for assault \u201cdoes raise serious questions\u201d.<\/p>\n

He asked: \u201cWhy has a woman from a well to do background, who has been convicted of a serious violent crime that involved kicking somebody in the head, been released under the Community Return Scheme after serving so little time?\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Irish Times on Wednesday, Carthy added: \u201cWe have to be clear that those who commit violent crimes, be they male or female, should in the interest of justice serve the custodial sentence that they were given.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chawke (41) of The Beeches, Holywell, Goatstown, Dublin 14 was released from Limerick Prison on Tuesday after four weeks in custody, having been sentenced to two years and two months, with the final 14 months suspended.<\/p>\n

Chawke and her brother Bill Chawke, whose father is prominent publican Charlie Chawke<\/a>, were convicted of assaulting two men at a hotel in Adare, Co Limerick<\/a>, three years ago. The siblings pleaded guilty to the assault.<\/p>\n

Bill Chawke (31) of Merrion Street Upper, Dublin 2, was sentenced to two years and six months for the assault, with the final 12 months suspended.<\/p>\n

Speaking further about the case on Newstalk Breakfast with Anton Savage on Thursday, Carthy said there was \u201cvalue\u201d in her early release. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt shines a light on the fact that we have a prison system that is bursting at the seams. As of yesterday, the 12th of August, there were 5,639 prisoners in a prison system that has a capacity for 4,800. There were 348 mattresses on the floors of prisons, and that\u2019s important for a number of reasons.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Alison Chawke released from prison four weeks into sentence for unprovoked assaultOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cOne, it means that there are people who should be in prison today who are being released in order to create capacity. But secondly, it means that prisons can\u2019t do their jobs, which is to ensure that we reduce recidivism. The recidivism rates in this state are among the worst across Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carthy said that of those people who will be released, \u201cbased on the latest figures that we have received, 42 per cent will reoffend within a year. For younger offenders, that figure is up on 60 per cent and up on 80 per cent if you look over a period of three years. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo we have a prison system that\u2019s not doing its job, which means we have more people who are repeating offences once they\u2019re released from prisons, which in turn puts pressure back on the prison system.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Saoirse Brady of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, said the community return scheme, under which Chawke was released, was designed for people considered less likely to reoffend.<\/p>\n

Speaking on RT\u00c9 radio\u2019s Today show, Brady said that under the scheme once a person was committed to prison, they were eligible to apply for the scheme, but their release was conditional. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey are released from prison but on the condition that they you know they\u2019ll adhere to any conditions that are placed on them, they\u2019ll be under the supervision of the probation service and they have to complete the community work that they\u2019ve been assigned.\u201d <\/p>\n

She said that could including things such as \u201dgraffiti removal [or] landscaping”. <\/p>\n

\u201cReally, it gives back to the community, and people are still serving a sentence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

International evidence indicated that where people served a sentence in the community they were less likely to reoffend in the future, she said, adding that it was a \u201creally positive\u201d scheme.<\/p>\n

Tom O\u2019Malley, professor of law at University of Galway, expressed surprise at Chawke\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why exactly this happened, but it does seem strange that somebody would be released after just serving one month of a sentence that was two years and two months,\u201d he told RT\u00c9 radio\u2019s Morning Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer actual sentence, her initial sentence was two years and two months, with the last 14 months suspended. So she had got quite a significant concession before she ever set foot in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a lot to be said in favour of the community return scheme, he said, \u201cbecause it can help people to get reintegrated back into the community and it\u2019s particularly important for people coming out of prison \u2013 for many prisoners, at least \u2013 that they\u2019re given some kind of supervision and some kind of help to readjust to liberty after having been in prison\u201d.<\/p>\n

Those chosen for release under the scheme would be evaluated as being at low risk of reoffending, he said.<\/p>\n

Limerick Prison, from where Chawke was released, was operating at 170 per cent capacity, which was strange, he said, as it was the newest prison in the State, having opened just three years ago. It was, he said, an interesting case study of both good and bad planning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prison itself was very well planned, but unfortunately there was what appears to be a serious underestimate of the number of people it would have to accommodate.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Prison population at lowest point this yearOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Income status should not have any impact on eligibility for the return scheme, he added. In the case of Alison Chawke, she had no previous convictions, so therefore could be regarded as not likely to reoffend. It was important that people should serve \u201ca reasonable portion of their sentence before being released back into the community\u201d, said O\u2019Malley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sinn F\u00e9in justice spokesman Matt Carthy has said the early release from prison of Alison Chawke after she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[36828,32151,61,60,11183,1396,113122,43,3415],"class_list":["post-592006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-adare","tag-charlie-chawke","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-prison-service","tag-limerick","tag-matt-carthy","tag-news","tag-sinn-fein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}