Any serious effort to repair criminal justice in New York City must do something about Rikers Island, the jail complex in the East River where justice goes to die, or at least be severely beaten.

The City Council speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, acknowledged this in her State of the City address this month, when she announced that the state’s former chief judge, Jonathan Lippman, would lead a commission to comprehensively examine the city’s criminal justice system. Its mission will be to reduce the jail population, now at about 10,000, enough to make it possible to consider shutting Rikers down for good.

Mr. Lippman is newly retired from the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, after a distinguished career advancing justice for the poor. His involvement lends credibility to Ms. Mark-Viverito’s intriguing proposal. Fixing Rikers has been talked about, fruitlessly, for years. Studies have been commissioned, consultants paid, lawsuits filed. Mr. Lippman, now with Latham & Watkins, says he will lead an open-minded investigation, but it’s hard to imagine a conclusion more foregone: The sensible thing to do with Rikers is to close it.

The Times has reported for years on the savagery there. The Justice Department has investigated its corrupted, poisoned culture. The department’s report on the abuse of teenage inmates is horrific reading. In a long history of often-fatal violence, incompetence and neglect, one tragic case stands out: that of Kalief Browder, who was 16 when he was taken to Rikers, accused of stealing a backpack. Because his mother could not make bail, he spent three years there, including about two in solitary confinement. He was assaulted by a guard and beaten by inmates. He tried repeatedly to kill himself, and after his release he succeeded. He was 22 years old.