BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - HE was a prominent man in society, teaching while pursuing a Law Degree as well as taking care of his family. But in June 2011 it all came tumbling down.
Newrish Nital, popular Mathematics teacher, law student, chemist and host of the ZIZ television programme ‘Ask Nital’, was convicted on three counts of fraud and sentenced to three years at Her Majesty's Prison (HMP).
It was brought out during his 2011 trial that he had presented several United States Postal Service International Postal Money Orders to a cashier at the Basseterre Post Office with intent to defraud.
It was also revealed that he successfully obtained EC$3 710, EC$1 855 and EC$3 710 on April 1, 2 and 4, respectively, from the cashier by presenting the money orders that later turned out to be fraudulent.
Nital was also said to have had a total of five US$700 money orders and had taken them to the postal office on the dates in question.
Having to spend three years in prison would toy with anyone's psyche, especially someone who has never been in trouble with the law and has a status such as the one Nital held.
However, Nital did not allow being locked away from the leisure and pleasure of freedom keep him down.
He made the best of his prison time and took it upon himself to take what he did for a living while on the outside and incorporate it on the inside, and thus he educated the prison populace.
SKNVibes sat down with the popular teacher, questioned him about his life behind bars and got insights to his experiences while at HMP.
In the first of this two-part article, Nital talks about the effect prison life had on him, teaching the inmates and helping them to obtain CXC subjects, counselling and general prison life.
How was your first night in prison?
Nital: “I was well accommodated. There were officers who made sure that something was put together for me to sleep on instead of having to sleep on the floor and I really appreciated that. Words cannot express the way I felt when that provision was specifically made to accommodate me.
“There was a particular time when I could have materialised sleeping on the floor because there was an elderly gentleman that came in and my heart really felt for him. I was about to give him my bed and bunk on the floor, but then provision were made to better facilitate him and I did not have to resort to that. But, definitely, had that not happened I would have given him my bed and I would have occupied the floor for the duration of time that he would have been there.”
Did being locked away affect you psychologically?
Nital: “I went and I accepted that I was there. I missed my children, my biological children and also the persons on the outside whom I educated. But I still realised that there were persons on the inside who I can now use to prove myself to be one of the better teachers around the region if I could get them to do things, which I eventually did. But it was the missing of my biological children and my mom and my dad on the outside that really registered and provoked me most.”
How did you deal with that?
Nital: “I recall going over and many persons over there would have to sleep on the floor. They hardly have beds over there and you have to sleep on the floor. But even behind those four walls, people realised that 'this is a guy who has made a very worthwhile contribution to society and knowing him, he would not stop doing that even behind bars. He would still continue'. And that is what I did.
“Regardless of what you get on with - you get a bad, you 'buss up' your bad words, you misbehave, you get your burst head - it's a waste of time because you cannot do anything until the next legal process. There is something called due process. You have been convicted, you have to wait until your time for appeal or somebody in government to give you leniency and they release you. It's a whole heap of things but nothing happens before. There's a timely phase with respect to legal process or due process.”
What did you do while in prison?
Nital: “I couldn't sit, stand or sleep in a cell knowing that persons are there to be helped academically and not help. So I got a very small space and I got a few of them [inmates] and I taught them English and Accounts. The first set of inmates that I prepared for exams were cellmates of mine...cell 25.
“I went there [HMP] convicted June 2011 and sentenced July 2011 and immediately after my sentence I started teaching the guys. They did exams in January 2012. Five months preparation and we had a 100 percent pass for both subjects.
“Ninety percent of the teaching was done from inside my cell because after Mr. Dorset realised the intention, they permitted me to use the Doctor's office. It's a small space that could facilitate the Doctor, the inmate and a guard or two, but was sufficient for us to make do.
“The first set was a small amount but the second time around we had about 17 persons doing 29 exams. And this time it was in the areas of English, Mathematics and Accounts. They did CXC O' Levels - Seven one's, 11 two's and seven three's. Spent majority of the time teaching and preparing inmates for exams.”
Apart from teaching, what else did you do to help the inmates academically?
Nital: “I started a vocabulary building programme where we used a four prang attack to improve the vocabulary. We have a word, we have its pronunciation, its meaning and then its usage [four prang]. We changed that word every day so you would find that a lot of inmates now have a wide vocabulary as a result of that.
“I hope that they are continuing it. I have investigated and I put some pressure on them because it was my personal vocabulary building book that I utilised for them to get the words and everything from; so they have an extensive vocabulary and I am proud of that.
“We also had debates. One of the major debates we had was the Kim Collins issue in London and that was excellent. We also debated whether Tourism was more beneficial than advantageous to our Federation. We also debated whether the woman or the man was the stronger sex. We have pending, one on the land-for-debt swap and that should be interesting.
“Another debate that we have coming up is that we sent out a challenge to the medical students to debate them on marijuana. The inmates were very eager because I was actually going to be one of the debaters and they couldn't wait for it to happen. But, somehow, it has not materialised as yet. But whenever it happens I am going to debate on behalf of the inmates."
What else have you done while in prison?
Nital: “I also did counselling. I have counselled a lot of persons...moreso than the officers would ever imagine. I have turned around the lives of many persons. A lot of them would have come a long way. Some of them would openly tell you that. There is one in particular who refer to me as his father and almost everything in me you can now see in him, and he has come a long way. He is ready for the road."
You spent 21 months in jail, what was life at HMP like?
Nital: “I played a lot of draught, they have some extremely good draught players. They [prison] have two festivals each year - one in May, one in August. He [competitor] defeated me in the first one [festival]. He gave me a one-nil.
“When my daughter came to visit me I told her I lost and she just wasn't happy. I worked out that I couldn't wait for August to come to put back the smile on her face, and I really gave him [competitor] a good beating the second time around. I gave her the prize that I won, which was a case of drinks.
“I also wrote one or two songs for persons. I did everything that I could have done to exhaust my mental capacity in terms of imparting knowledge and comfort psychologically to a lot of inmates.
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