SACRAMENTO -- A no-show at a Thursday hearing fueled the controversy over moving prisoners across state lines against their will, NBC11 reported.

The state committee on prison operations was ready to ask tough questions of the private company set to transfer inmates out of California during a hearing Thursday.

However, the Corrections Corporation of America representative was a no-show.

"Here we have a $56 million contract, and it guarantees them payment whether we have one prisoner or 1,000 prisoners -- and it's a guaranteed contract," Assemblyman Todd Spitzer said. "And they can't send one official to California to answer questions of the legislators?"

California has already sent 400 inmates to private prisons in Tennessee and Arizona. Those inmates were volunteers. A video used as a recruitment tool encourages prisoners to volunteer to move to less crowded facilities out of state.

The Department of Corrections created the video, which tells inmates they will have bigger cells, dozens of cable channels and all night parties if they move to a prison in Tennessee.

Under the prison reform package signed last month by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, California will soon begin sending up to 8,000 prisoners out of state -- whether they like it or not -- prompting concerns about potential riots.

Bill Sessa of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said there's no safety concern whatsoever. "We move hundreds of thousands of inmates a year against their will," Sessa said. "Moving them to a prison in another state is really no different."

Not everyone is enthused about sending prisoners out of state to ease prison overcrowding. Critics said there is a better way to go.

Matt Gray of Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety said that the 20,000 foreign national inmates in prisons on "our dime, California's dime," could be transferred into federal custody and begin the deportation process back to their country so Californians would no longer have to pay to keep them housed.

Prison authorities said undocumented immigrants would be among the first inmates screened for involuntary transfers.

The Corrections Corporation of America told NBC11 it didn't show up because of a scheduling conflict and because it did not receive enough advance notice.

A meeting will be rescheduled for next Thursday, NBC11 reported.