Recent News
Augustana student fights to clear his name
T.Y. Stone, David Staples and Jay Marks on Augustana's main campus the first day of classes for Spring semester 2024. David will be graduating this May with plans to attend graduate school in Community Psychology; Jay is majoring in Environmental Studies and Classics with a GIS minor; TY plans to major in Communication Studies. They are the first three APEP students to continue their studies on the Rock Island campus.
Reentry Simulation March 2024
Chalkbeat: "Pell grants return to Illinois" featuring Tyrone Stone and Jason Marks
David Staples shares his story on Fox 18 News - video, article
Restorative justice with Anselm by APEP faculty member Annelisa Burns
Heart of Hope Ministries Newsletter, featuring David Staples
Augustana Observer
"From Wrongfully Convicted to Exonerated Augie Student" and "APEP Poetry Blooms from Behind Bars"
Sharon Varallo appears on WVIK, local NPR
Scribble episode on APEP
Happy New Year! APEP was gifted one million times over by the Austin E. Knowlton Foundation.
For one inmate, the Augustana Prison Education Program paves a way for freedom
David Staples, 54, was released from the East Moline Correctional Center on Aug. 12 after serving 29 years for a crime that he did not commit. He was released early with help from good behavior credits, and from the Augustana Prison Education Program, or APEP.
Tredway Library Prize for First-Year Research
On behalf of Thomas Tredway Library, we are excited to award the Tredway Library Prize for First-Year Research to Brandon Johnson for his paper “When Numbers Lie.” Brandon’s paper, written as part of Dr. Sharon Varallo’s FYI 101 course in the Augustana Prison Education Program, breaks down officially-reported statistics surrounding Japanese-American internment in the United States. Specifically, his paper argues that numbers have a voice, hold power, and that the many discrepancies surrounding these statistics have far-reaching and lingering implications. Brandon's paper is now available for download in Augustana Digital Commons.
Podcast - Higher Education In Prison
Access to higher education courses in prison is about to get a lot better in Illinois. Sharon Varallo is the director of the Augustana Prison Education Program. Carl Williams, a tutor and advocate with the Illinois Coalition for Higher Education in Prison, was incarcerated, and tells Craig Dellimore that the education he received turned his life around.
Illinois Department of Corrections and Augustana College Launch the First 'Second Chance Pell Experimental Site' in the State
(East Moline, Il) – Last week was the first week of fall semester classes for college students across the state – including 30 students enrolled in the Augustana Prison Education Program (APEP) inside East Moline Correctional Center. The program is the first Second Chance Pell Experimental Site in the state of Illinois to draw upon Second Chance Pell awards from the US Department of Education. In 2021, Augustana College applied and was selected to participate in the Second Chance Pell Initiative to provide the prison education program. The Second Chance Pell Initiative, which the US Department of Education expanded for the 2022-2023 award year, enables individuals in custody to participate in post-secondary education programs with Pell grant funding. This is the first program of its type in Illinois since incarcerated persons were banned access to Pell grants in 1994. This collaboration between Augustana College and the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) aims to identify best practices to share with the broader higher education community in Illinois and comes in advance of full Pell grant restoration for individuals in custody in summer 2023.
Success Story
Illinois Innocence Project client and APEP student David Staples Released After 29 Years