Leo Glynn - Season 1

Season 1

As warden of Oz, Glynn carries out Devlin's orders and does what he can to manage the state's largest correctional facility. A new cell block, Emerald City, is opened up and run by a unit manager named Tim McManus. McManus is unlike the rest of the higher ranking staff at Oz in that he came in with a college education and never started off as a correctional officer. He is a liberal idealist with whom Glynn often disagrees. McManus has complete control of Em City from the commissioner but Glynn overrides some of his decisions at times. One decision in particular that is overruled is the addition of inmate Paul Markstrom to the population of Em City. Markstrom, according to the file, is a petty African American drug dealer that is supposedly related to Glynn, but in actuality he is an undercover narcotics detective looking to put a plug in the drug trade. Glynn is the only staff member who knows his true identity and this becomes a problem when the Italian inmates, led by Nino Schibetta, kill Markstrom. Throughout the season, McManus and Glynn both argue frequently over the methods of controlling the drug distribution amongst the inmates. Glynn believes in more lockdowns and shakedowns to stop the traffic while McManus believes more in addiction treatment. Glynn announces several new policies over the season that anger the majority of the prison population. The board of corrections has decided to ban smoking and conjugal visit privileges from the prisoners and Glynn while having some disagreements over the policies states that enforcement of these policies is more important than the agreement of these policies. Tim McManus is most vocal against Devlin's administration and states that a riot may very well occur in Oz. Adding to this tension is the arrival of inmate Kareem Saïd, a black Muslim who is incarcerated for arson. Saïd is a well known militant who poses a major threat to the staff, Homeboys, and the Aryan Brotherhood inmates.

Throughout the season several inmates die in Em City, mainly caught in the drug war between the Italian and Black inmates. This angers Governor Devlin who is already in the process of reinstating the death penalty. The death penalty is reinstated and as a result Homeboy leader Jefferson Keane is executed by the state for murdering some other inmates. Another inmate Donald Groves attempts to murder Glynn as he is trying to help the cause of Kareem Saïd. Groves instead kills African American CO Lawrence Smith and as a result he is sentenced to death. Groves' attempt on Glynn and murdering of a CO causes the other guards to begin randomly assaulting prisoners throughout Oz which is something that appalls Tim McManus. Glynn is urged by Dr. Nathan, the prison doctor and McManus to fire the guards for this, but Glynn instead just temporarily suspends various COs without pay as punishment. This decision angers staff investigator Lenny Burrano who explains to Leo that it is something they should not do as they both came up through the ranks as guards and realize the hardness and attitude that develop with the job. Glynn also is trying to put a plug in the drug trade and urges McManus to shut down the Italian inmates who control it the most. McManus does his best to do this by transferring all of the Italians with the exception of Schibetta out of Emerald City.

In the meantime, Kareem Saïd is organizing the Muslims and other inmates secretly and this gets Tim McManus to be greatly concerned about a riot. When disgraced Muslim Huseni Mershah claims that Saïd wants to start a riot, Glynn orders a shakedown of Emerald City that results in a weapons seizure from every inmate but Saïd. McManus' suspicions become true and the prisoners take over Em City taking the Guards hostage. Saïd has a gun (which an unknown Black CO gave to him) during the riot and uses it to cause the inmates inside to organize. With the help of Scott Ross, Ryan O'Reily, Simon Adebisi, and Miguel Alvarez, Saïd and the inmates make a list of demands to occur in order to release the guards who they have taken hostage. Glynn reads the demands and thinks that most of them are actually reasonable but Governor Devlin ardently opposes them and urges Leo to have the S.O.R.T. team use force to take back the prison. Tim McManus opposes this and goes into Em City with food for the prisoners in order to see how the hostages are doing. After McManus does not come back, Devlin has the S.O.R.T. team go in with machine guns and take back the cell block. As a result, 6 inmates and 2 correctional officers die and the rest of the prisoners are sent back to Gen Pop (With the exception of the riot leaders who were taken to Solitary). Tim McManus and several other staff members are greatly injured but live as they were accidentally shot during the take over.