Divine Comedy for AP Lit?

So I'm currently in AP Lit and considered reading The Divine Comedy on my own time considering it's influence on the literary world and the many allusions to Inferno in specific in other works. Do you think it would be beneficial and worth the time for me to at least read Inferno if not the entire poem? If so, what're some good translations of it? Right now I have the free translation in the iBooks app for the iPhone.

Project Gutenberg has various translations as well (free on any decent e-book reader).
The whole trilogy is huge and paradise is very heavy going for a none religious person. Go for it if you are serious.

Yes, there are free translations on Gutenberg.org, but only the out-of-copyright (older) ones. More recent translations will be available only in the library or by purchase. I'd recommend John Ciardi's verse translation but it's certainly not the only option.

I read the entire Divine Comedy last year.

I did so in a translation into German, my mother tongue, so I can't comment on English translations.

What I can say, however, is that it's quite a tedious read. I read the Comedy of my own accord, mainly because I have several books on my reading list* that are based on or relate to the Commedia.
It was more work than fun, I must admit.
For one thing, the language was quite difficult; this point may well be different in your English translation of choice. (My translation retained the rhythmic pattern but abandoned the rhyme of the Italian original.)
In addition, the narration is stuffed to the brim with references to politics and events of Dante's time and surroundings (not to speak of history and mythology) as well as metaphors and religious allegory (especially in the "Paradiso"). This makes the book practically unintelligible without annotations.

I'd suggest you read the first canto which is a kind of introduction anyway that precedes the "Inferno" section. This'll give you an idea of how the Commedia is written.

If your main motivation is to know what happens in the poem it might be better to read a good summary. There are rather detailed ones at Wikipedia for each of the three sections; they're probably more understandable than the poem itself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...28Dante%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/...Purgatorio
http://en.wikipedia.org/...28Dante%29

Best,
Zac

* Larry Niven's and Jerry Pournelle's "Inferno" and the sequel "Escape from Hell"; Matthew Pearl's "The Dante Club"; Dan Brown's "Inferno"