Editor’s Note — This is the second part in a series on the state sex offender registry.
SALEM — Saundra Edwards spent more than half her career in Plymouth County trying to lock up sex offenders.
Now, the 43-year-old woman is leading the state agency that keeps track of them when they’re out.
Edwards, who spent seven of her 13 years as a prosecutor in Plymouth County trying sex offenders, was appointed by Gov. Deval Patrick last fall to head the Sex Offender Registry, based in Salem.
One of the first people Edwards, of Lawrence, picked to help her on the job was Jeanne Holmes of Brockton, another Plymouth County prosecutor whose 25-year career included trying to convince judges and juries to civilly commit convicted sex offenders.
Edwards, who started in November, said their time in the courtroom prosecuting sex offenders gives them a unique perspective on the job.
“I’m not coming just from a managerial perspective,” Edwards said. “I come from the perspective of an individual who prosecuted sex offenders, who worked intimately with victims and understands what victims go through.”
Edwards, a graduate of Suffolk University Law School and mother of two, joined the Plymouth County district attorney’s office 13 years ago. She quickly moved from prosecuting cases in district court to dealing with sex crimes — including those who prey on children.
“You see the effect these crimes have,” Edwards said. “You meet with the victims, you feel compassion and you see what they go through.”
Holmes, her chief of staff, spent the bulk of her career trying to lock up sex offenders.
She first worked in the child protection unit at the district attorney’s office, prosecuting suspects accused of molesting children. Then she became the prosecutor who tried to keep the worst of the worst locked up civilly under the state’s sexually dangerous laws.
In Massachusetts, prosecutors can press the court to keep sex offenders locked up in a treatment center for a day to life if it can be shown they pose a danger to the community and are still sexually dangerous.
Holmes said she’s seen offenders whose crimes span years — and multiple victims and that experience highlighted how important it is to keep tabs on sex offenders.
“It is almost worse the second time around because there is a feeling that, somehow, it could have been prevented,” she said.
Holmes, 52, grew up in Randolph and later moved to Brockton with her husband, where they raised two children. She graduated from Boston College and Ohio Northern University Law School.
The two women said dealing with the victims of sex offenders makes them realize how important the registry is.
“You see first-hand the impact on victims, the devastation, the loss,” Holmes said.
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