(Harrisburg) -- Pennsylvania is taking nearly 1,000 of its inmates out of a Virginia prison and putting them back in its state prisons. The inmates are being returned because of newly built inmate housing and a leveling-off of the prison population. Susan McNaughton, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections, says they were sent to Virginia about a year ago because of Pennsylvania’s crowded prisons. McNaughton says the population explosion was due to a series of police shootings in 2008 that resulted in a parole moratorium. "While individuals were still coming into the system there was a pause in the paroling of individuals so we were kind of getting jammed up where the inmates were still coming in from the front door," she says. "But, they weren’t going out the back door and that really just caused a spike in our population." It cost the state $62 per day for each inmate housed out of state. McNaughton says the she expects all inmates to be back in-state by 2012. More than 1,000 Pennsylvania inmates housed in a Michigan prison last year were brought back in May.