LANSING (AP) -- Empty Michigan prisons could become home to hundreds of California inmates if a deal can be struck.

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm sent a letter Monday to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger formally offering space for some of the inmates California is running out of room to house.

Michigan plans to close some prisons by the end of September.  Michigan could save the jobs of about half of the 1,000 corrections officers it plans to lay off by October 1 if California accepts the offer.

A request for comment was left with Schwarzenegger's office Monday.

(Copyright ©2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)