The United States Federal Witness Protection Program (WPP), also known as the Witness Security Program or WITSEC, is a witness protection program codified through 18 U.S. Code § 3521 and administered by the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

. The program is operated by the

United States Marshals Service The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The Marshals Service serves as the enforcement and security arm of the United States federal judi ...

and is designed to protect threatened

witness In law, a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, either oral or written, of what they know or claim to know. A witness might be compelled to provide testimony in court, before a grand jur ...

es and their family members before, during, and after a

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...

when those witnesses have an association with the federal government. The program was originally authorized by the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 and later amended by the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. The amended issues included bail, sentencing reform, pleas for insanity, and penalties for drug offenses.

History

The WITSEC program was formally established under Title V of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, which states that the

United States Attorney General The United States attorney general is the head of the United States Department of Justice and serves as the chief law enforcement officer of the Federal government of the United States, federal government. The attorney general acts as the princi ...

may provide for the relocation and protection of a witness or potential witness of the

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

or a

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

in an official proceeding concerning

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

or other serious offenses. See 18 U.S.C. 3521, ''et seq.'' The Federal government also gives grants to the states to enable them to provide similar services. The precursor to WITSEC was the Federal Witness Protection Program, created in the mid-1960s by Gerald Shur, the attorney in charge of the Intelligence and Special Services Unit of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the United States Department of Justice. Most witnesses are protected by the

under the Department of Justice, while the protection of incarcerated witnesses is the duty of the

Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Justice that is responsible for all List of United States federal prisons, federal prisons ...

. From the WITSEC program, the Emergency Witness Assistance Program was created in 1997 to fill "the need for immediate, non-protective, short-duration witness assistance not available through the Witness Security Program and the Short-Term Protection Program".

Operations

A handful of states—

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, New York,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

—and

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, have their own witness protection programs for crimes not covered by the federal program. These state-run programs provide less extensive protections, in part because state governments lack the ability to issue federal documents such as Social Security cards to verify the new identity of protected witnesses. Another benefit of the federal program is that the Marshals Service provides payments to participants of about $60,000 on average, while also assisting them with finding housing and stable jobs under their new identities. There are two main types of witnesses who can be eligible for the program, "fact witnesses" and "expert witnesses." Fact witnesses provide factual information and/or personal knowledge to a case. Oftentimes, but not always, these witnesses were present at the scene of a crime. Expert witnesses provide technical or scientific testimony. Both types of witnesses will be compensated based on negotiations with a federal government attorney. As of 2020, approximately 19,000 witnesses and family members had been protected by the U.S. Marshals Service since the program began in 1971. The program has a 100% success rate; no witness who has followed the rules and guidelines set out by the U.S. Marshals Service has ever died in WITSEC. According to Gerald Shur, who created the federal program, about 95% of witnesses in the program are "criminals". They may be intentional criminals, or people who are doing business with criminals, such as one engineer who bought off a mayor because that's how you do business in the city.' In his mind, he wasn't doing anything criminal," Shur said. A witness who agrees to testify for the prosecution is generally eligible to join the program, which is entirely voluntary. Witnesses are permitted to leave the program and return to their original identities at any time, although this is discouraged by administrators. In both criminal and civil matters involving protected witnesses, the U.S. Marshals cooperate fully with local law enforcement and court authorities to bring witnesses to justice or to have them fulfill their legal responsibilities. The program is highly secretive in order to ensure the safety of its participants. The leaking or sharing of information on these participants is taken seriously. A former federal law enforcement officer, John Thomas Ambrose, was convicted in 2009 of leaking information about a federal witness in the Witness Protection Program, Chicago Outfit hitman Nicholas Calabrese.

Recidivism

Recidivism Recidivism (; from 'recurring', derived from 'again' and 'to fall') is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been trained to Extinction (psycholo ...

is described as a person's relapse into the criminal justice system without a new sentence within a three-year period. Fewer than 17% of protected witnesses who have committed crimes are caught committing other crimes. While this is far lower than the national average, notable instances of protected witnesses returning to a life of crime exist, such as Sammy Gravano.

Emergency Witness Assistance Program

The process of entering the Witness Protection Program can be prolonged for numerous reasons. The Emergency Witness Assistance Program, created in 1997, provides services more quickly, but participation is limited to a 30-day period. Its services include housing, transportation, subsistence payments, and child/elder care.

History

Operations

Recidivism

Emergency Witness Assistance Program

See also

References

Further reading