RICHMOND, Va. — Pennsylvania is withdrawing nearly 1,000 inmates it sent to a Virginia prison about a year ago.

Virginia Department of Corrections director Harold Clarke told employees about the move today in a memo.

Pennsylvania pays $62 per day per inmate to house the prisoners at Virginia’s Green Rock Correctional Center. That amounts to about $22 million a year.

Clarke says in the memo that the move will put the department in a difficult financial position. He says the contract with Pennsylvania pays not only for the operation of Green Rock, but also for other inmate beds.

Pennsylvania corrections spokeswoman Sue McNaughton says the state has built several new inmate housing units and now has space for its prisoners.