David Staples will graduate from the Augustana Prison Education program, also known as APEP, this month. It's a full-time undergraduate program for incarcerated men at the East Moline Correctional Center.
The program started in 2021 with a cohort of only 10 students, including Staples. He will now be the first ever APEP student to graduate.
Executive Director Sharon Varallo says the program gives incarcerated men access to the same education as other Augustana students.
"Imagine how transformative Augustana is to young people, who are, you know, sort of learning who they are," Varallo said. "Now double that, triple that, times ten, it's a portal into another way of being. That is not because they are humanly different but because resources and options become available."
She says Augustana is one of very few colleges in the country to have a program like APEP. And one of even fewer that allows incarcerated students to earn a bachelor's degree in only four years.
"So we designed an American Studies major, that has history, politics and art," Varallo said. "Classes from a lot of different departments. The interdisciplinary nature of it is what's going to make it possible for people to get a degree in four years. Most prison education programs, they take six, or seven, or eight years."
APEP students can also obtain degrees in other disciplines.
Staples will graduate soon with a BA in pyschology. Unlike his fellow graduates, he's juggling finals and attending court dates.
Staples has been working with the Illinois Innocence Project for years trying to clear his name. Varallo says Staples is "verifiably innocent," yet as of today, his felony charges still stand.
Varallo says he was imprisoned in 1993 "for a murder he did not commit."
"And to this day, remains waiting for the state of Illinois to exonerate him."
Varallo says she hopes he can walk across the stage and accept his diploma as a free man.
"Despite all that has happened to him, he wants to go and study at the master's level— counseling pyschology," Varallo said. "And do some good for people who have been in situations similar to his."
Staples' case is ongoing. He will graduate this month with the rest of Augustana's class of 2024.