One of the benefits of getting older is realizing that there are few absolute truths and that being “right” is often relative.

When I was young, I was convinced I knew the “right way.” The truths were absolute: The Vietnam War was wrong. Nixon was a crook. Capitalism was bad.

In my old age, I have come to understand that elusive truths must be pursued with curiosity, debate, and an open mind, and that the truths we seek often lie in a messy middle somewhere between absolutes. In ethics, there are absolute rights and wrongs, but, as we have come to understand, there are also mitigating circumstances such as childhood trauma. I miss the comfort of absolutes

As I’ve written before, I’m not a fan of incarceration. But I don’t see it as a yes/no question, either. We have largely failed as a state and a country to capitalize on our social and economic efforts to help people, families, and communities stay healthy and prevent or mitigate the adverse childhood experiences that cause trauma and often lead to deviant behavior. Unfortunately, instead of focusing our investments on education and prevention, we have chosen to criminalize the later consequences of our failures: substance use disorders, mental illness, and poverty.

Today, more than ever, we need a fair criminal justice system that begins at the police and prosecutorial level and then extends to the judicial level, an area where we are failing miserably.

The decision cannot simply be a question of whether or not to abolish prisons. It is a question of whether to abandon the status quo or make a major step forward in the treatment of people subject to the law.

Here in Vermont, the Department of Corrections is planning to build a new facility for women that will focus on personal and family support, networking, and successful reintegration into the family, community, and economy. If we don’t get that done, we’ll continue with business as usual and nothing will change.

The plan was recently presented to the Town of Essex Planning Commission, where it faced stiff opposition. Some in attendance recognized the need and wisdom of building a modern, reintegration-focused facility, but most Essex residents opposed the choice of their town as a site.

The DOC tried hard to clearly demonstrate to community members what they were planning and how important it would be to implementing the steps most Vermonters supported – building a new and more humane correctional system focused on reintegration into society and preventing recidivism. But resistance prevailed.

I recently met a friend for lunch in Burlington. We saw people injecting drugs in public, something I had never seen growing up. My lunch partner expressed his horror and asked why these people were not rounded up and locked up. My silence provoked the question, “Don’t you agree?”

I risked our friendship by saying “no” and said, “We need to be reminded every day of our failings as a society and hopefully these tragic memories can move us to do something.” That ended that part of the discussion and we had a nice lunch.

On the morning of August 12, the FreeHer campaign, which advocates for the “decriminalization and closure of women’s prisons” in the six New England states, held a pottery demonstration outside the office of local architect Freeman French Freeman. Freeman helped the DOC create a conceptual sketch of a possible design for the new women’s facility, based on principles established by the DOC and adopted by the Scandinavian and Maine rehabilitation facilities.

My immediate reaction was to grab a pot and a spoon and get going, but then I thought more about what the DOC is planning, what misery they are replacing, and decided to find out more before I went. I also knew that there was no contract with them or anyone else for a final architectural design.

There is a lot of good news. As a principled opponent of incarceration as we know it, I was pleased to learn more about the proposed facility, which builds on the remarkable successes of the Scandinavian systems and our neighboring system in Maine.

Some facts:

As of this writing, there are 104 women in state custody, or about 7.5% of the total prison population, according to DOC population data, which can change daily. Twelve women are currently being held beyond their minimum for parole violations.

Because of our broken justice system, many women in the custody of the correctional system are “inmates,” meaning they have been charged with a crime and the judge has sent them to jail instead of releasing them on bail. So they are in prison even though they are technically presumed innocent until found guilty in court. 41 men and women in the custody of the correctional system are currently inmates awaiting trial.

Only 30 women in Vermont’s current women’s prison, the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, have been convicted of serious crimes or serious charges such as aggravated assault, aggravated sexual assault and murder. These are women from whom Vermonters should expect protection.

My opposition to prisons as I know them remains unwavering, but my understanding that people who have violated the legal boundaries of society for whatever reason may need a halfway house to help them heal, reconcile with the victims, and prepare them for reintegration has only grown over the years. If you want to call it “punishment,” go ahead. I understand it differently now.

The questions I ask myself are: Is this facility the best way to spend $70 million, especially given the number of empty dorm spaces in Vermont?

Given the DOC’s success in reducing detentions for technical violations and the hope that the court system recovers and the number of women in pretrial detention drops significantly, do we need 128 beds in the closed facility? And I would like to think that some of the 128 beds designated for the closed facility could be moved to the 30 beds in the rehabilitation facility.

And, of course, the question arises as to what the money could achieve if it were invested in trauma diagnosis and counseling, mental health and addiction treatment clinics, social housing and nutrition, and job training.

Employers constantly complain that they cannot find workers at any price. Twincraft and Rhino Foods are both pioneers in working with ex-prisoners to help them reintegrate into society and, just as importantly, into the economy.

We need to invest before and after the event to enable women (and men) to return safely to society.

We can all do better.