General Discussion

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.[12] The program has a 100% success rate; no witness that has followed the rules and guidelines set out by the U.S. Marshals Service has ever died in WITSEC.[2]

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.[13]

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.[2]

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.[14][15][16][17]