Out of Sight, Out of Mind

The Realities of Incarceration in Rural America

John “Hank” Staats eats a breakfast of four cupcakes and three chicken tenders on his first day out of Missaukee County Jail in 305 days on Saturday, March 30, 2024 in Lake City, Mich. 

Just another first day of freedom
LAKE CITY – Hank’s welcome home party consisted of four cupcakes, a string of cigarettes and a cup of coffee from a machine he didn’t know how to use. And he was fine with that.
In the early hours of Saturday, March 30, John “Hank” Staats, 26, was released from Missaukee County Jail for the first time in 305 days. Because of his 4 a.m. release time, his mom left the keys to the family van with the rest of the belongings to be returned to him so he could just drive himself home.

Hank’s discarded cupcake wrappers and his mother, Robin's, cigarettes and planner decorate the coffee table on Saturday, March 30, 2024 in Lake City, Mich. 

“I’ve been in and out so much the past three years, it’s not exciting anymore,” Hank said. 
By his count, between Missaukee and Wexford County jails, Hank has spent 28 out of the last 42 months incarcerated – that’s exactly two thirds of the last three and a half years
This first thing he did once he was home was light a cigarette and start a pot of coffee. 
“This is new,” he said as he navigated the foreign machine. Then, he ran the gambit: set his phone back up, checked his stack of mail for his ID and any other important things he missed, and used the bathroom - alone. 

Hank makes coffee and looks through the pile of mail left for him on his first day out of Missaukee County Jail in 305 days on Saturday, March 30, 2024 in Lake City, Mich. 

By the time his mom, Robin, woke up and made her way to the living room, there was another pot of coffee already brewing. “He always made sure to have a pot made for me every morning before he left,” she said. 
He went to grab the Minnie Mouse coffee mug out of her hand to fill it when she pulled him in for a hug first. 
“No more of that,” she said. “I’m sick of seeing you in oranges.”

Robin pulls Hank into a hug on his first day out of Missaukee County Jail in 305 days on Saturday, March 30, 2024 in Lake City, Mich. 

Hank’s not the only member of the Staats family who’s familiar with Missaukee County’s legal system. 
“Samuel,” his older brother, 29, “has spent more of his adult life in jail than out,” Robin said. Their older sister, Randi Jo, 37, has served her stints at the county facility too. Between the three, most of their charges have been connected to possession and use of methamphetamines. 
Robin herself struggled with substance use that started when she was 18 after the murder of her brother, but has since found sobriety and is trying to help her kids find it too. 
Without delving into too many details, Robin recognized that her kids have suffered from trauma that probably contributed to their substance use, but she has grown tired of the cycle her youngest three seem to be caught in and the in-fighting that has resulted. 
After Hank got home, he began the search for the more valuable items he stashed away – a pair of diamond studs and a gold chain. These, he said, he was planning to pawn off to set himself up until he found a job. He quickly realized, however, that they were missing.  
Robin lit a cigarette and sighed.

Robin lights a cigarette while talking to Hank about his sister on his first day out of Missaukee County Jail in 305 days on Saturday, March 30, 2024 in Lake City, Mich. “I hate to say it,” she said, “ but don’t hang out with her too much.” 

“I’m just done with all of it,” she said. “I’m tired of the drugs, I’m tired of the thievin’.”
Hank has reached the end of his rope too.
When you first look at him, it's hard to miss the tattoos that decorate the outer corner of each eye. What you might not see is the circle of life the ink tells.

Hank take notes during the substance use peer support group hosted by Catholic Human Services at the Missaukee County Jail on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in Lake City, Mich.

On the left, a honeysuckle, Hank's birth flower. And on the right, two dash-like symbols, the logo for the skateboarding brand Deathwish, he said. 
“They represent all the times I was legally dead,” he says “I still have to get one more.”
Hopefully, however, this one will be his last. 
Any further convictions mean prison, but this time he’s starting with a different outlook - one that began in November 2023. 
At the end of last year, Missaukee County Jail welcomed Nikki Platz, a peer recovery coach from Catholic Human Services. 
Nikki has been in recovery for three decades and is now using her experience to connect with people behind bars and set them on their own path toward sobriety. Twice a week, she meets with the men’s and women’s groups at the jail, provides them lessons, and they discuss topics related to substance use and recovery. 
To celebrate their commitment to the program, Nikki awards individuals a certificate for every 10 weeks they participate. During Hank’s last meeting with her before he was released, he received his second certificate. 
After that final meeting, he said he’d been to rehab before, but pushed against the program because it was court mandated. He felt that others who have tried to help him find sobriety were trying to shame him out of using drugs, rather than help him work through what led to the substance use in the first place.
With Nikki, it was different. Having struggled with her own addiction, she was able to relate in a way the others couldn’t - leading Hank to a position where he was ready to begin recovery for himself. 
It’s a journey he hopes to take with his older brother Samuel, who’s on track to be released in May and head straight to a rehabilitation facility.

Hank (left) visits his brother, Samuel (right), at Missaukee County Jail on Saturday, March 30, 2024 in Lake City, Mich. He brought his phone to help him respond to messages during the visit.

On the morning of Hank's release, Samuel and another friend of theirs woke him up at 3:30 a.m. to play one last game of Spades before he left. Just six hours later, Hank was back at the jail to visit his brother and flaunt his new-found freedom - a gesture he’d been waiting to pay back since Samuel did it to him a few months prior. 
Hank helped Samuel relay messages to a few people on the outside, and they just talked for as long as they could. He mentioned the sheer number of cigarettes he had smoked that morning, needing something to do with his hands, and his plans going forward. 
“Me and him, we’ve used together, we’ve fallen together into our addiction,” Hank said. “And now it’ll give us another person to rely on when we are in recovery.”

Hank (right) visits his brother, Samuel (left), at Missaukee County Jail on Saturday, March 30, 2024 in Lake City, Mich.

↑Back to Top