His draconian legislation, designed to emphasize punishment in the correctional system, makes him a figure hated by Oz's inmate population and several staff members.
Devlin passes laws prohibiting several basic freedoms, such as smoking and conjugal visits, from inmates statewide; as a result, tension builds within prison walls.
Saïd decides to protest Devlin's measures by leading Oz's inmates in a prison riot, issuing a list of demands and holding several guards hostage.
Devlin has law school dean Alvah Case investigate the riot, offering to appoint him as state attorney general if he prosecutes the guilty parties.
Meanwhile, Devlin ends funding for McManus' inmate GED program, and decides to make the announcement after Oz's graduation ceremony.
Devlin deals with issues involving Dr. Gloria Nathan, the chief attending physician in Oz, who opposes a bid by the Weigart Corporation to privatize the prison's health care system, and objects when Weigart head Frederick Garvey orders that inmate Miguel Alvarez be taken off of anti-depressants as a way of reducing the costs of medical care.
When Alvarez and Agamemnon Busmalis break out of Oz, Devlin's office suggests that while their escape is initially appealing to the public, they will want them captured and returned promptly.
Clayton Hughes, a former corrections officer at Oz, makes numerous speeches condemning Devlin as representing all that is evil within white society.
After Sister Pete makes an unsuccessful attempt to change the form of capital punishment, other psychiatrists deem Giles as insane, and his death sentence is overturned.
Devlin reaffirms his support for the death penalty during the sentencing of Oz inmate Cyril O'Reily for the murder of another prisoner, Li Chen.
Race riots erupt statewide as Wilson Loewen, a powerful mayor who aided Devlin's election, is convicted for his involvement in a 1963 murder of two black girls by the Ku Klux Klan.