Governor James Devlin

Governor James Devlin is a fictional character on the HBO drama "Oz", played by Željko Ivanek.

Character overview

Devlin, the governor of the (unidentified) state in which the series takes place, is hated by most the inmates and some of the staff members at the Oswald State Correctional facilities as he proposes several anti-prisoner acts of legislation through his election campaign promise of "No perks for prisoners." Throughout the series, he is also on trial for various political charges but then things eventually get worse when the mayor who helped him get elected, Wilson Loewen arrives in Oz. From there Oz's staff learns some negative truths about Devlin that can lead to his eventual imprisonment.

eason 1

Devlin begins this season being elected as the State's governor from a campaign of "No Perks for Prisoners." Throughout the season, several basic freedoms that many inmates have such as smoking and conjugal visits are banned from prisoners statewide and as a result, tension within the prison walls builds. Devlin's philosophy is that being hard on crime will in fact reduce crime over a period of time. New Oz inmate Kareem Said and Emerald City Unit Manager Tim McManus openly oppose Devlin whose legislative acts are enforced by both the Commissioner of Prisons and Warden Leo Glynn. Devlin also reinstates the death penalty for the first time in over thirty years and as a result, three inmates Jefferson Keane, Richard L'Italien, and Donald Groves are executed at the hands of the state over the season. Inside of Oz, the inmates get furious at all of the anti-prisoner legislation and begin a riot that is organized by Said. Upon organizing the riot, Said and inmates Ryan O'Reily, Miguel Alvarez, Scott Ross, and Simon Adebisi send a list of demands out as a means of releasing the COs who they have taken hostage in Emerald City. Warden Glynn and Tim McManus feel that several of the demands are actually harmless but Devlin has no interest in negotiation and rather orders the SORT team to recapture Emerald City by any means necessary. As Em City is recaptured, two correctional officers and six inmates die in the line of fire and Em City itself is destroyed.

eason 2

To clear his name from using excessive force, Devlin appoints law school dean Alvah Case to do an impartial investigation of the causes and effects of the Emerald City riot. Devlin does this to appease the public but more importantly he wants Case to put the ringleaders of the riot on trial and found guilty. Case is offered a position by Devlin as the State Attorney General if he indeed completes the investigation in a way that appeases Devlin. However, Case concludes in his investigation that no one in particular is at fault for the riot as it's the only way to make Devlin not look guilty in sending in the SORT team. Case states that if the prisoners are guilty, Devlin is too as his legislation of anti-prisoner acts is what caused the riot in the first place. Furious, Devlin states that Case will not get his position as the State's Attorney General but Case then turns the tables on him stating that he'd rather run for Governor in the next election against Devlin. Devlin then states at a press conference Case's findings as it is the only way to prevent himself from looking bad in causing the riot. Throughout the season, Tim McManus reopens Emerald City and begins a mandatory GED program for the Em City inmates who have not finished high school. Devlin decides that the state should end funding for the prison educational programs though and plans to announce it after the graduation ceremony. McManus furious at the ending of a successful program that even gets one inmate early parole turns the tables on Devlin at the ceremony announcing the ending of the GED program earlier than Devlin anticipated. Off camera, Devlin tells McManus that his move while stealthy will in the end make no difference as to what the registered voters in the state think. Things get somewhat complicated for Devlin when a new inmate named Jiggy Walker accuses Devlin of purchasing Crack-Cocaine from him. As Devlin is actually innocent of this, he holds a press conference discrediting Walker and reproving his innocence as a way to make himself look better. Warden Glynn wonders if Devlin indeed bribed Walker as a means of setting up the whole press conference which he apparently did not. Finally, during the Islamic month of Ramadan, Devlin decides to pardon a Muslim inmate as a means of increasing his influence in both the Muslim and African American communities throughout the state. He grants a pardon to Kareem Said who then humiliates him at the press conference refusing his pardon as he feels it is a cheap means of buying Black and Islamic constituents. Furthermore, Said points out Devlin's immoral action in the riot condemning him further in full view of the public.

eason 3

Devlin does not appear that often this season as he mainly deals with issues regarding Dr. Gloria Nathan. Dr. Nathan has problems with the Weigart corporation led by Dr. Frederick Garvey who is looking to privatize the health care system within Oz. Things mainly get complicated around inmate Miguel Alvarez who is taken off of his medication by Garvey as a way of reducing the costs of medical care. Dr. Nathan ardently objects to this because Alvarez has a history of depression and is potentially suicidal. When Miguel is found trying to hang himself within solitary confinement, Dr. Nathan ardently objects to him being taken off the anti-depressants and protests Garvey's profit-only based motives. Dr. Garvey then makes an economical decision to fire Dr. Nathan but as Alvarez attempts suicide, Governor Devlin pulls the plug on Weigart. It is even discovered that Garvey was at one time an illegal abortion clinic doctor and Devlin uses this as leverage to re-hire Dr. Nathan so that it can look like he actually cares about the inmates receiving the best health care possible. It can be assumed that Devlin spends the rest of the season preparing for the upcoming election in the following year.

eason 4 Part I

It is re-election time and Alvah Case is running against Devlin for governor. Racial issues are present in this election as the Republican party has a tarnished and battered relationship with the state's African American voters and the fact that Case himself is Black doesn't help their voting situation. As a result, Devlin's assistant Wendy asks Warden Leo Glynn who is both Black and as Conservative as Devlin on most issues if he would like to run as Devlin's Lieutenant. Glynn says yes even though he realizes that his part in the campaign is mainly to help Black voters vote Republican. The first step of the campaign involves the Governor's office pushing Glynn to first fire Unit Manager Tim McManus. A gun-smuggling incident within Oz resulting in the death of several African American prisoners and staff members has occurred while McManus was on watch and McManus' self-destructive and racially insensitive behavior at the funeral of CO Joseph Howard causes Glynn to go through with this. Later two inmates Agamemnon Busmalis and Miguel Alvarez escape and Devlin's office suggests that while a prison break is initially appealing to the public, the public wants the prisoners captured and returned promptly. Busmalis is captured and Glynn is then told that in a straw poll, the public's belief in the prison system has gone up. However, the execution of a female prisoner Shirley Bellinger is approaching and Glynn is told that the public backlash to this execution is best balanced out through recovering Miguel Alvarez. Devlin suggests to Glynn throughout the campaign that the voters like a politician they can personally relate to and that Glynn should expose some personal details pertaining to crime within his family to help better his image in the voters' eyes. At a press conference, Glynn exposes his brother's life sentence for murder and his daughter's rape as a means of telling the public he understands "all aspects of crime." Glynn pulls a move that is successful in getting more Black voters through hiring Martin Querns, an African American replacement to Tim McManus to run Emerald City. Querns makes the prison also look statistically better by reducing violent incidents immediately, but his methods of reduction are not yet known to everyone outside of his cell block. Throughout the campaign, trouble comes from Clayton Hughes, the man who smuggled the gun into Oz who makes numerous speeches condemning Governor Devlin as representing all that is evil within White society. Devlin tries to get Glynn who is the closest thing Hughes has to a father to shut him up but he is unsuccessful as Hughes attempts to murder Devlin at a press conference. When Devlin is shot, he is taken immediately to the ER where he for the time being is confined to a wheelchair. Devlin's near assassination causes Hughes to stand trial for attempted murder, Glynn to drop out of the race and the Black inmates within Oz to cheer on Hughes while the White inmates within Oz condemn Hughes. Devlin however stays in the race while injured and manages to barely win the election over Alvah Case, a notable achievement in what is such a left-wing state that OZ is located in.

eason 4 Part II

Devlin gets inaugurated for his second term as governor but not before allowing a television crew to investigate happenings at Oz. The TV crew does not air their story and Devlin is then seen at the annual Warden's conference held at Oz in crutches. While there, he points out to Warden Glynn that though it was that room that he was shot in, he thanks Clayton Hughes for helping him win the election. Devlin finds controversy in the death sentence of William Giles who wishes to be stoned to death. After a failed offer in changing the forms of capital punishment to Sister Pete, other psychiatrists deem Giles as insane and have his death sentence overturned.

eason 5

Devlin appoints a state liaison, Eleanor O'Connor, to Oz who will make political concerns easier to address from Oz's staff to the Governor's office. O'Connor is also the ex-wife of Tim McManus, Emerald City's unit manager. Devlin restates his support of the death penalty during the sentencing of Oz inmate Cyril O'Reily for murdering inmate Li Chen. As O'Reily's IQ is 51, Cyril's execution draws the ire of several liberal groups who protest for an appeal and overturned sentence. Devlin's public perception then diminishes courtesy of the support of Cyril O'Reily's protesters, although they are ultimately unable to save O'Reily.

eason 6

A race riot erupts in the city after city mayor Wilson Loewen, a key politician who helped Devlin get elected is on trial for his assistance to the Ku Klux Klan in a 1963 murder of two African American girls. The flames are fueled when Devlin off the record claims that he will pardon Loewen if convicted. As Loewen is found guilty, Devlin disagrees with the sentence but publicly states he will not pardon Loewen due to the volatility of the situation and will have him sent to Oz as a means of placating the African American mob that has formed. However, Devlin states in Glynn's office that he will pardon Loewen after the riot rage dies out and that Leo must protect Loewen while he is incarcerated. It is concluded that Wilson is housed in the safer Unit J, the unit for bad police officers which currently houses Tobias Beecher and Alvin Yood, neither of whom are Black. Loewen gets greedy however and blackmails Devlin for an immediate pardon that if not given will result in implications of Devlin in various illegal activities. Devlin then uses his African American assistant Perry Loftus to use staff member Adrian Johnson to order Loewen's murder discretely. Inmates Willy Brandt and Lionel Kelsch set up the murder in the hospital ward on payment from Johnson.

In the meantime, to stopgag anti-death penalty protests, Devlin suggests Cyril O'Reily undergo ECT treatment which involves electrocution to appear normal. As this happens, O'Reily's family and attorneys are unable to stop it. As Detective McGorry and Warden Glynn investigate Loewen's murder, they discover CO Johnson's involvement. Johnson calls Loftus letting them realize what's happening and Devlin then has McGorry replaced by Tarnowski as a means of speeding up the investigation and drawing suspicion away from himself. Warden Glynn however realizes too much information and before everything can be pieced completely together, Devlin has Perry order Johnson to arrange for Glynn's death. Lionel Kelsch then kills Glynn after a payment from Johnson, angering Oz's staff members. Leo's death causes a speedy investigation from Tim McManus who pieces all the information he can together as a means of implicating Devlin's office in Loewen's murder. Devlin then orders Martin Querns, Glynn's replacement as Warden to fire McManus whom he then gives a month's notice. As Oz is evacuated during an anthrax attack, nothing is finalized but Devlin realizes because of McManus his days in office may or may not be numbered.