Secure, Washington

The year is 2039, and as the Independence Day holiday approaches, George Stoltz (best-selling author of the Those Who Made it Happen books) is given a suggestion by his agent for a new entry into that series. As it so happens, July 4th will also mark the tenth anniversary of the opening of Secure, Washington—a hybrid (part prison/part conventional) city owned and operated by the state to permanently house the worst of its misfit citizens: repeat criminal convicts, people who suffer from severe mental illness who lack any means of support, and the homeless (only those who volunteer to live there). The story begins in late 2018, with the MM Group—which began as a coffee klatch—developing and finally putting forth a citizen's initiative to deal with misfits. I-1719 went on to earn overwhelming approval (76%) by the voters, culminating in the construction of Secure. The state's 282nd city ended up being built on the 1,800-acre site of an abandoned nuclear power plant, which ironically was terminated due to another successful citizen's initiative that passed in 1981. Mr. Stoltz creates a fascinating portrait of this unique city through numerous interviews, along with personal observations from his unprecedented week-long stay inside Secure. He also provides an eye-opening before/after analysis of what Seattle and the rest of the Puget Sound region look like now that 23,901 misfits (Secure's population during George's stay) have been removed from normal society, with untold numbers of additional misfits choosing to relocate out of state.