Is the witness protection program an ordeal?
Ordeal’s not the right word. The program is devastating. It’s devastating to the people who go into it. People who are going into the witness protection program have absolutely no idea that they are going into solitary confinement. In a lot of the cases the prosecutors have no idea of the conditions that the witness is going to be subjected to. They think that they’re just going to a regular place to do their time. They’re not. The trauma starts from the very beginning, having to testify. Then when you wake up and you find yourself in a solitary confinement situation [that] lasts throughout your entire incarceration phase. Then when you’re put into the second phase of the program, you’re a person without an identity. You have no name, you have no Social Security number. Everything is issued to you. … You can’t see your family? Once you go into the witness protection program, you are no longer allowed to see your family ever again. …You can contact them through phone calls set up th
