Prisoners will be counted in their hometowns rather than where they're incarcerated but neither those imprisoned in state facilities nor parolees can vote in New York.

At Monday's Republican debate in South Carolina, presidential candidates sparred over whether people with felony convictions should be allowed to vote, with front runner, Mitt Romney, saying, "I think who committed violent crimes should not be allowed to vote again."

Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, is interviewed about the “three strikes” legislation passed by the Massachusett’s legislature and aimed at keeping habitual offenders incarcerated longer. The bill is now making its way to Governor Deval Patrick’s desk for approval.

Private prisons held over 128,000 prisoners in 2010, representing an 80 percent increase since 1999. This growth has been built on the claim that private prisons can operate at a lower cost than publicly operated facilities, while still providing the same levels of service. Private prison companies have failed to fulfill this promise, according to the new report, Too Good to be True: Private Prisons in America.

National: Civil rights report details “historic” assault on voting rights

National: Senate bill introduced to restore federal voting rights

Florida: Florida under scrutiny for voting laws

California: San Francisco’s highest voter turnout comes from County Jail

Critics have set their sights on Virginia, where lawyers and inmates say some of the state’s 40,000 prisoners, including some with mental-health issues, have been kept in isolation for years, in one case for 14 years.

The National Associations for the Advancement of Colored People has 40 active prison branches and prison memberships in excess of 500 members.

Though the overall prison population is on the decline, the incarceration rate for African-American men and women in federal and state prisons was much higher in 2010, when compared with the number of whites and Hispanics behind bars, according to a U.S. Justice Department report published in December.

Featured: Race and reform strategies

Spotlight on Research: Studies of racial disparities in federal sentencing

Spotlight on Research: Perceptions of problems affecting African American Communities and children

Policy: Governor vetoes bill that sought to end North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act

Policy: Justice Department investigates targeting of black students for unfair treatment in Mississippi

Policing: What are encounters with the police like for an African American male?