Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Apparently, we didn’t learn from our history with the Chautauqua County Jail. In fact, it appears we’re about to repeat it.

State officials are beginning to raise questions about the use of an old, antiquated section of the Chautauqua County Jail — just like they did in the late 1990s. An artificial deadline is being floated to push a decision — just like back in the 1990s. The price tag is astronomical — just like the 1990s.

We’ve known for a while that county officials were going to be reviewing a possible project involving the Chautauqua County Jail. But the shape of those talks, before a recent presentation, hadn’t been public. Just like the 1990s, the public is going to have a hard time coming to grips with the $120 million price tag that comes with replacing a part of the jail that Sheriff Jim Quattrone says is in such poor condition that he’d prefer not to use it all. And, he says the state is starting to make noises about the area not being suitable for prisoners while Quattrone says inmates have been able to break antiquated building materials and make weapons out of them. The public is also going to have a hard time coming to grips with the idea that after years of talking about bail reform and the number of people whose offenses don’t qualify for bail that now it’s time to spend more than $100 million on a new section of the county jail. And, it can feel like a little bit of a used car sales pitch to hear that a decision is needed now, or else the cost of the new jail is going to just get bigger.

We, frankly, don’t have enough information yet to know whether or not a $120 million project makes sense for Chautauqua County right now. How sustainable is the county’s current budget surplus? Are there concerns about county debt that should be discussed? Is a new jail going to be needed for years down the road, or will it be like partially used dorms at Jamestown Community College? Do the costs to ship prisoners out to other jails and to no longer accept federal prisoners outweigh the roughly $2.3 million bond payments on a new jail? These are all key bits of information that both county lawmakers should have in front of them before making a decision and that should be given to the public before county legislators approve a project this big.

We don’t know for sure whether this project is good or bad — but we admit the county may not have a choice. Just like the last time we did a jail project.