New Orleans - Prosecutors from outside the city have been brought into New Orleans to help clear a huge backlog of cases, a special panel working on the city's troubled criminal-justice system said Monday. The panel, the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee appointed by Mayor C. Ray Nagin, said prosecutors from neighboring Jefferson Parish are helping the Orleans Parish district attorney's office screen arrests for possible prosecutions as the city struggles to recover from Hurricane Katrina. Assistance also is being sought from other parishes. The committee also is pushing for more private lawyers to work as public defenders for poor defendants. Criminal District Judge Arthur Hunter has said that unless officials act swiftly to fix the public defenders' office, he will begin on Aug.