Five people were arrested Wednesday, suspected of helping three inmates escape from Orange County Central Men’s Jail.

Although the three fugitives remained at large, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said in a televised news conference that she believes the five people arrested are part of a larger group that helped in the escape. Their names have not been released, and Hutchens said more arrests are expected during the next two days.

Hutchens also has not ruled out the possibility that the escapees had help from people inside the system. An investigation into that question is ongoing.

Hutchens described the three fugitives – Hossein Nayeri, Jonathan Tieu and Bac Duong – as “armed and dangerous” and said authorities still have no sightings of the men. A $200,000 reward has been offered for information leading to their arrests.

The men escaped Friday, cutting through barriers (one barrier was one-inch steel, the sheriff said), squeezing through plumbing ducts and rappelling off the roof.

“It’s every sheriff’s nightmare,” Hutchens said. “You don’t want an escape from any jail; it’s not a good day. There’s not a member of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department … that does not feel like we let the public down.”

Earlier in the day, Hutchens visited Little Saigon, appealing for help within the community. Tieu and Duong have connections to Vietnamese gangs.

Later, in the news conference outside the jail, the sheriff said some of the suspects arrested are gang members. But she offered no details of the arrests. A department spokesman said later that revealing the names of those arrested would compromise the investigation.

The Sheriff’s Department released new photos of Bac Duong on Wednesday that showed his gang tattoos.

The escape has prompted changes at the jail, including the way deputies count prisoners, Hutchens said. The men escaped sometime after the 5 a.m. head count Friday and were not noticed missing until a second head count that evening.

Hutchens described Nayeri, who is charged in a 2012 kidnap and torture case, as the escape’s likely “mastermind,” saying he is more sophisticated than Tieu and Duong.

On Monday, a deputy district attorney said Nayeri is “diabolical” and compared him to movie villain Hannibal Lecter. Heather Brown, who is prosecuting the case against Nayeri, said jail officials were warned that Nayeri deserved special attention. The District Attorney’s Office later called those comments “inappropriate, uninformed and rash.”

Hutchens on Wednesday defended the Sheriff Department’s handling of Nayeri.

“We house based on behavior, and there were no issues with any of these individuals while in our custody,” Hutchens said. “(Nayeri) was housed in an appropriate area of the jail.”

The Central Men’s Jail, built in 1968, has had 16 escapes over the decades. Hutchens described it as “old” and “high-maintenance” and noted that at the time it opened, 70 percent of its inmates were charged with misdemeanors and 30 percent with felonies. Today, she said, the ratio is flipped.

She pointed out that the jail, including the dormitory-style module where the escape began, is short on modern technology.

“Do we continue to put money into an old jail?” the sheriff asked. “I think there are some technologies that we can invest in.”

Authorities have set up a hotline for anyone who has information about the case: 714-628-7085.