So Michael Nutter named another deputy mayor. Why is it headline news? Because it is the deputy mayorship for the office of ex-offenders, and the new deputy mayor has been in prison.

This is not really a surprise, and I mean that in the best possible way. While I share some of Stan's concerns about the mayor's tax priorities, his appointments have (with scant exception) been wonderful.

One weird thing about picking Ronald Cuie: he's not exactly every guy from West Oak Lane who got caught up in dealing when he was younger and managed against the odds to turn himself around.

He's already been a deputy mayor, under Rendell, and a deputy managing director under Goode. So he's privileged. And he did the kind of things that privileged people do: cocaine and alcohol. If he hadn't gone too far, and hadn't ended up beating, tying up, and torturing a companion, it is pretty unlikely that his coke habit would have gotten him thrown in jail.

As it was, he spent only three years in prison for his conviction ("robbery, aggravated assault, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment and criminal conspiracy"). Presumably when he got out, he had at least some of the safety net that a once-high-ranking city official is likely to have.

This all makes him pretty atypical of the people coming out of prison and back to Philly neighborhoods. He's clearly spent time and energy since his release devoted to helping make systemic changes in the prison and re-entry systems. Hopefully he will serve as a literal bridge to those in power who think they are detached from the problems of those in prison, those getting out, and their families. And hopefully he has come to understand the huge structural obstacles people who aren't deputy mayors face when they have to restructure a life after incaceration.