Sinn Féin raises ‘serious questions’ over Alison Chawke’s early prison release

Sinn Féin justice spokesperson Matt Carthy linked the release to overcrowding, with thousands of prisoners exceeding the system’s capacity

Alison Chawke. Picture: Brendan Gleeson

“Serious questions have to be asked” about the early release of Alison Chawke from prison just four weeks into her two-year-and-two-month sentence, Sinn Féin has said.

The 41-year-old was released from Limerick Female Prison on Tuesday after she was jailed alongside her brother Bill for assault causing harm to two men at the Bunraven Arms Hotel in Adare in November 2023.

On July 14, Bill Chawke was sentenced to two years and two months, with the final 12 months suspended. Alison Chawke, of the Beeches, Holywell, Goatstown, Dublin 14, was sentenced to two years and two months, with the final 14 months suspended.

Her sentence was suspended on the condition that she keeps the peace and is of good behaviour and pays €1,000.

It is understood she was released on Tuesday under the Community Return Scheme.

Justice spokesperson for Sinn Féin, Matt Carthy, said “serious questions have to be asked” but that there was “value” in the incident.

“It 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's important for a number of reasons," he told Newstalk Breakfast with Anton Savage on Thursday. 

“One, 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't do their jobs, which is to ensure that we reduce recidivism. The recidivism rates in this state are among the worst across Europe.

“Of those people who will be released based on the latest figures that we have received, 42 per cent will re-offend within a year. For younger offenders, that figure is up on 60 per cent and up to 80 per cent if you look over a period of three years," Mr Carthy added. 

The TD added that Ireland has “a prison system that's not doing its job".

“Which means we have more people who are repeating offences once they're released from prisons, which in turn puts pressure back on the prison system," he said. 

“And all of this points to a dysfunction across the criminal justice system, particularly within the prison system where we have an overcrowding crisis that has actually worsened since Minister O'Callaghan has come to office and we have no real action from government to address it. And it's one of those things that is hiding in plain sight," he added.