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ByDonThompson TheAssociatedPress SACRAMENTO An addi- tional $24 million that was supposed to end the back- log in a unique California firearms seizure program has reduced the waitlist only about 40 percent, ac- cording to a report released Monday. That leaves a backlog of nearly 13,000 gun owners who bought firearms legally but were later convicted of a felony or a violent misde- meanor, became subject to a domesticviolencerestraining order or were determined to be mentally unstable. Officials said the extra money in 2013 would let Attorney General Kamala Harris' office end a back- log of nearly 21,000 people within three years. The remaining backlog of nearly 12,700 gun owners is the lowest it's been since 2008, Harris said. The re- port she released Monday cites recent expansions of the state's gun control laws for the continued backlog. Harris, a Democrat who is running for the U.S. Sen- ate this year, called the re- sults "historic reductions" and "historic achievements" in the face of an increased workload, but lawmakers of both political parties expressed frustration at a hearing last year. "She's taking a victory lap and she should be hold- ing her head in shame," Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, said Monday. "They seem to think it's a good thing and I think it's outrageous." The additional money runs out in May, and Har- ris now wants lawmakers to make permanent the fund- ing that was initially given her office after a series of mass shootings, including the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre. Her office had spent about $14.4 million of the $24 million by October, but she argued the 9-year-old program needs the budget extended past three years because of an increased workload. That includes a state law that took effect this month that lets family members ask judges for restraining orders if they question a rel- ative's mental stability. The state also added ri- fles and shotguns to state databases that previously only included handguns, she said. The state De- partment of Justice cross- matches five databases to identify those whose guns may be seized. Including the long guns since 2014 roughly doubled the num- ber of individuals who might face ownership pro- hibitions as the depart- ment sorts through more than 930,000 firearms sales each year. Harris reported that nearly 19,000 investiga- tions were conducted un- der the program in the last 2 ½ years, resulting in the seizure of 335 assault weap- ons along with about 9,400 handguns and long guns. CALIFORNIA Gu n- se iz ur e ba ck lo g remains despite $24M By Gillian Flaccus The Associated Press SANTA ANA Three Cali- fornia inmates who sawed through a metal grate, crawled through plumb- ing tunnels and shimmied to free- dom down a rope made from bed lin- ens likely had help to pull off the daring plan and also bene- fited from the com- placency of ja i l staff, se- curity ex- perts said Monday. The in- mates van- ished early Friday in a jail break eerily sim- ilar to the escape of two in- m a t e s from an u p s t a t e New York prison last sum- mer. Those men also cut through a portion of wall hidden under a bunk bed and used piping and tun- nels inside the facility to reach the outside. The California in- mates, including one who is charged with murder, were still at large Monday. Jail officials did not real- ize they were missing un- til roughly 16 hours after they were last seen because an evening headcount was delayed by an assault on a guard. A major question for in- vestigators will be how the men were able to plan and execute their flight with such precision, said Kevin Tamez, a managing part- ner for MPM Group, a Phil- adelphia-based firm that consults on prison secu- rity, management and in- frastructure. It's likely someone slipped them blueprints or told them how the bowels of the jail were laid out, he said. "If I were whoever's in- vestigating, there are some people who would be on a polygraph, I guarantee you," Tamez said. "They had to have had some in- side help." Lt. Jeff Hallock, a spokes- man for the Orange County Sheriff's Department, said there is no evidence so far that the trio had help from the inside but authorities know it's a possibility. Jonathan Tieu, 20, Bac Duong, 43, and Hossein Nayeri, 37, were all await- ing trials for unrelated vio- lent crimes. They were held in a dormitory with about 65 other men. They cut through a quar- ter-inch-thick grill on a dormitory wall and got into plumbing tunnels be- fore sawing through half- inch-thick steel bars as they made their way be- hind walls to an unguarded area of a roof atop a five- story building. There, they moved aside razor wire and rappelled to the ground us- ing the bed linen. It was the first escape in nearly three decades from the California facil- ity built in 1968. The jail holds 900 men and is lo- cated in Santa Ana, about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The similarities to last summer's escape in New York point to complacency among guards and admin- istrators at the California facility, experts said. "This summer we had this huge escape from Clin- ton Prison in New York and every prison or jail admin- istrator in the country should have said to them- selves, 'Huh, I wonder if I am vulnerable?' and should have checked their steam shafts and tunnels and ev- ery other thing that gives access to the outside," said Martin Horn, a professor of corrections at John Jay College of Criminal Jus- tice at City University of New York. JAIL BREAK Expert: Inmates must have had inside help ORANGECOUNTYSHERIFF'SOFFICE A closeup view shows a vent screen that had been cut and removed inside a cell at Central Men's Jail in Santa Ana from which three inmates escaped sometime Friday. 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