Officer Diane Whittlesey is a fictional character played by Edie Falco on the television program Oz. According to an article in The New York Times, Whittlesey was modeled after a female unit manager whom series creator Tom Fontana met at a prison in southern New Jersey. Character overview Oz's first female correctional officer is a divorcee and single mother, who has suffered spousal abuse, poverty and substance abuse; through all of that, she gained a pretty good understanding of criminal life. She is a CO in the Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary, but repeatedly explains that this is because she can't find work anywhere else. Her only drive is taking care of her mother, who has cancer, and her young daughter, whom she has to raise all by herself. She works double shifts, sometimes sleeping in the prison, just to make ends meet, and is shown to be one of the more compassionate and fair COs. Whittlesey is one of the few characters to have a happy ending to their series arc. Season 1 (1997) Whittlesey is introduced as the supervisor of the guards in Emerald City, Unit Manager Tim McManus' experimental cell block, first seen when a new group of inmates, including Tobias Beecher and Miguel Alvarez, arrive at Oz. She helps to keep prisoners' records and to stop any conflicts between inmates. Eventually, she and McManus form an attraction and even have sex inside an empty cell while avoiding the execution of Jefferson Keane. However, when the two receive flak from their fellow staff members over their relationship, particularly by Mike Healy, she breaks it off with McManus, who despite his reputation for bed-hopping and womanizing reacts poorly. Eventually, Whittlesey gets some bad news — Oz has made a contract with the Department of Corrections that, as a condition, will no longer allow officers to work overtime, severely impacting her finances. More trouble arises for her when Scott Ross enters Oz. He was a biker on the outside and used to be in the same gang as Whittlesey's ex-husband. He is obsessed with Whittlesey, and on the outside he repeatedly tried to have sex with her behind her husband's back. Ross decides to "help her out" with her situation at home; he proposes that she smuggle cigarettes for him and he will give her a cut of the profits. She agrees reluctantly, but is quickly discovered by McManus. He