All About WITSEC, aka the Witness Protection Program

Witness protection is provided only for witnesses whose testimony is determined to be essential to the successful prosecution of a criminal case and in which the witness's life or the life of their family is at risk.

The witness's testimony also must be considered credible an­d certain in coming, meaning that the witness isn't going to back out of giving that testimony in c­ourt.

Three organizations manage witness protection programs:

The process for enrolling a witness into the federal program b­egins when a state or federal law enforcement agency submits a request for protection.

A Witness Security Program application is then submitted to the OEO. This application summarizes the testimony to be provided, the threat to the witness and any risk the witness may pose to a new community if relocated.

The OEO then arranges for a preliminary interview with the Marshals Service so the witness ca­n find out what to expect from his or her new life in the witness protection program. The Marshals Service coordinates the interview directly with the prosecutor or requesting law enforcement agency, which must provide a copy of the application and threat assessment to the Marshals Service.

Following the preliminary interview, the Marshals Service makes its recommendation as to whether the prospective witness should be placed in the Witness Security Program. Its recommendation goes to the OEO. The final authority to enroll a witness into the program belongs to the U.S. Attorney General.

Since many of these witnesses are often criminals themselves, the Attorney General evaluates the following factors regarding each adult considered for witness protection programs:

­If the value of the witness's testimony outweighs the danger to the new community, the Attorney General can place the witness in the Federal Witness Security Program. The OEO then advises the requesting agency's headquarters of the Attorney General's decision.

The witness and family members must sign a Memorandum of Understanding, verifying they understand the rules of the program. But entry into the program is only the first step toward anonymity. ­

Prisoner Witnesses

Some witnesses who are already in state or federal prison may also eligible for the Witness Security Program if they meet the criteria of the program. In addition to the other conditions of the program, prisoner witnesses are required to take a polygraph test. Entry into the program can be denied depending on the results of the polygraph test.

Incarcerated witnesses are managed by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons and often will be transferred to a new prison once in the program to serve the remainder of their sentence. Once out, their case will be reevaluated to determine if they need to be relocated to a safe city.

The Witness Security Program is designed to create total anonymity for witnesses and help them blend into a new city where they most likely won't be recognized. The United States has more than 300 million people and thousands of citie­s in which to hide a protected witness.

Following the acceptance of a witness into the program, the Marshals Service is tasked with creating a new identity and finding a new city for the witness, his family and any endangered associates. This requires the coordination of multiple government agencies, good timing and total secrecy.

While witnesses are given a fresh start in a new community, their past transgressions are not completely ignored. The Marshals Service often notifies local law enforcement in the new community of the presence of the witness and their criminal history.

The Marshals Service also can mandate random drug or alcohol testing and set other conditions to ensure the success of the program. In return, the Marshals Service will:

As far as choosing a new name, witnesses can have their pick. However, according to the book "WITSEC: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program," cowritten by the program's creator, Gerald Shur, witnesses are advised to keep their current initials or same first name.

Name changes are done by the court system just like any name change, but the records are sealed.

There is no forgiveness of loans or other obligations. Before entering the program, potential witnesses must first pay any existing debts and satisfy any outstanding criminal or civil obligations. They also must provide appropriate child custody documents proving that their kids are indeed theirs.

The entire ­purpose of the witness protection program is to keep the witnesses safe so that they can testify at trials that could convict members of organized crime, gangs or terrorist networks. Perhaps the riskiest part of the process is when the witness returns to testify.

A great number of precautions are taken, and security is maximized at this time. In his book, Shur describes bringing witnesses in mail trucks, helicopters and fishing boats. In one instance, an armored car was sent with a full police escort as a decoy while former Mafia member Joseph Barboza was snuck in through a side door of the courthouse.

At trial, even witnesses no longer in the program are given protection if they are testifying in cases for which the witness originally entered the program.

Taking such drastic measures to protect witnesses has paid off for prosecutors. Since the program's inception in 1970, it has achieved an overall conviction rate of 89 percent as a result of protected witness testimony, and more than 10,000 criminals have been convicted, according to the Marshals Service.

Once the trial is over, it is time for the witness and his family to enter their new life.

One of the key objectives of the Witness Security Program is to help witnesses assimilate into their new communities and become self-sufficient. Among o­ther things, this requires assistance with securing employment.

However, from the beginning of the program, there has been some concern that the government could be helping criminal witnesses too much.

The Marshals Service will assist witnesses with finding employment. However, if a witness fails to aggressively seek employment, subsistence payments will be terminated. At that point, the relocated witness can enroll in public assistance if he or she chooses.

The most important rule of the program is that witnesses must not make contact with former associates or unprotected family members. They also must not return to the town from which they were relocated. According to the Marshals Service, no witness who has followed these two safety rules has ever been killed.

Once assimilated into their community, contact with government officials is only required once per year. Witnesses also need to make contact with the government if they move. Any other contact with witnesses must be requested through the OEO or Marshals Service.

Witnesses in the Witness Security Program sometimes break the law while in protection. In fact, there is a recidivism rate of about 17 percent among witnesses who have been placed in the the federal witness' program, according to a recent Department of Justice study.

However, that is a low rate compared to criminals paroled from prison: Only 60 percent of ex-convicts stay out of trouble, according to "WITSEC."

If a witness is arrested and convicted while in custody, the sponsoring federal investigative agency is asked to advise state authorities of the witness's cooperation to ensure the witness's security.

If state authorities can't protect the witness, they can advise the OEO, which will review the witness's case and consider reinstatement in the Witness Security Program as a prisoner. Once in prison, the Federal Bureau of Prisons takes over custody.

Victims of crimes committed by protected witnesses can be compensated for certain crimes as part of the Victims Compensation Fund, as provided by U.S. Code Title 18, Section 3525. The fund is administered by the OEO and covers medical care and/or funeral costs, as well as basic living expenses due to lost wages. ­

The Witness Security Program we know today is an evolution of individual cases that began in the early 1960s and were investigated by the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section (OCRS) of the U.S. Department of Justice's office. This group was l­ed by U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and included Gerald Shur, the man who would go on to create WITSEC.

Shur, who was a U.S. Attorney at the time, was involved in several cases in which the federal government protected witnesses who testified against organized crime. Among these witnesses were Joseph Valachi, Joseph Barboza and Larry Gallo.

In 1969, Sen. John L. McClellan of Arkansas introduced a large crime bill. G. Robert Blakely, a member of McClellan's staff, had drafted much of this bill. Blakely took Shur's ideas for a witness protection program and inserted it into the crime bill, according to Shur's book, "WITSEC."

The Federal Witness Protection Program was authorized as part of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970. Within this law was the section Title V: Protected Facilities for Housing Government Witnesses, which outlines the basic tenets of what would become the Witness Security Program.

Although the law now provided for a program to protect witnesses, many details of the program and the day-to-day administration still had to be formulated. Shur suggested that the Marshals Service protect, hide and relocate witnesses and fund enforcement operations of the program. Soon this program became known as WITSEC, an abbreviation of "witness security."

This law gave the Department of Justice wide latitude to accommodate what attorneys deemed necessary to protect witnesses.

Nearly 15 years later, the powers of the Attorney General with respect to the Witness Security Program were expanded by the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. This new Act provided for the protection of certain relatives and associates.

Today, the WITSEC Program is essential to the prosecution of hundreds of cases. Without it, many witnesses would never come forward or would be killed if they did. With the protection provided by the program, witnesses can testify and then disappear when the trial is over, and the criminals they testify against are almost always convicted.