Inside Nick Reiner's Life in Jail as He Stands Accused of Murdering Parents: Solitary Confinement and Medical Evaluations (Exclusive) By Danielle Bacher

Behind the concrete walls of Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles, Nick Reiner’s world is confined to a drab 7-by-10-foot cell.

Since entering the jail system on Dec. 15 following his arrest on suspicion of murdering his parents, director Rob Reiner and photographer and producer Michele Singer Reiner, Nick has been housed inside Tower 2’s high-observation mental health unit.

There, Nick remains alone in his cell at all times and is served three meals a day in confinement, four police sources confirm to PEOPLE.

“The inmates [where he is located] have significant mental health illnesses and need to be kept alone and away from any other people or inmates,” says a Los Angeles County sheriff source. Doctors and mental health professional determined Nick has a “mental disability” one police source previously told PEOPLE.

At the facility, breakfast is served around 6 a.m., lunch around 10:30 or 11 a.m. and dinner around 5 p.m. Breakfast and lunch are usually cold foods, while dinner is typically hot, according to a law enforcement insider .

“He has about an hour to eat and then a deputy sheriff collects his tray inside his cell,” adds the sheriff source, who claims the facility has a different and “better” menu than what’s served at other L.A. jails.

Nick had a break in his typical routine on Wednesday, Jan. 7, the date of his highly-anticipated arraignment.

Around 6 a.m., a few hours after receiving clearance from the jail clerk to attend the hearing, Nick showered and changed into a prison-issued brown jumpsuit, according to the sheriff source.

Two hours later, he was transported by authorities in a marked vehicle to the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles.

Following the dramatic courtroom appearance, at which he entered no plea and his high-profile defense attorney stepped away from the case, Nick returned Twin Towers.

At 5 p.m. that night, he ate dinner alone, as he has daily since his arrest, beneath fluorescent lights, dressed in bright yellow short-sleeved jail shirt and dark blue pants, according to the sheriff source.

While Nick is no longer on suicide watch and the jail has removed the suicide-prevention smock he was required to wear at all times, he remains under close observation.

“He is still being monitored every 15 minutes and is being recorded when he exits his cell to go to court or for evaluations or other necessary requirements,” says the sheriff source. “He is also evaluated each week by our medical professionals like psychiatrists on staff but he did not see one after court.”

The sheriff source says that Nick, who wore his hair in a buzz cut at his Jan. 7 arraignment, had his hair cut at his own request. A medical professional performed the haircut in Nick’s cell sometime between his initial court appearance on Dec. 17 and Jan. 7.

Nick’s next court appearance is set for Feb. 23, when a L.A. County Superior Court judge rescheduled his arraignment following the resignation of Nick’s attorney Alan Jackson during the Jan. 7 arraignment. Kimberly Greene of the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office will now handle Nick’s case.

After conferring with the judge in her chambers, Jackson said in the courtroom that “we feel we have no choice” but to withdraw from the case. In a news conference after the hearing, he added that he had been forced to do so because of circumstances beyond his control.

“Nick Reiner is not guilty of murder,” he said. “Print that.”

“But be clear. Be very, very clear about this. My team and I remain deeply, deeply committed to Nick Reiner and to his best interests,” he continued. “In fact, we know, we’re not just convinced. We know that the legal process will reveal the true facts of the circumstances surrounding this case, Nick’s case.”

Nathan J. Hochman, the Los Angeles County district attorney, said in a brief news conference that he was confident a jury would ultimately convict Nick for the “brutal murder of his parents.”

The public defender’s office learned on Tues., Jan. 6, that it would be taking over the case.

Lawyer Greene told reporters outside the courthouse that she had spoken briefly with Nick but not with his family. Ricardo Garcia, a member of her legal team, added, “On behalf of the entire public defender’s office, we are incredibly sorry and understand the pain and suffering that the Reiner family is going through at this time. … Our hearts go out to the entire family.”

In a statement to PEOPLE, a spokesman for the Reiner family said, “They have the utmost trust in the legal process and will not comment further on matters related to the legal proceedings.”

For years before his arrest, Nick struggled with addiction. His parents Rob and Michele — who also had children Jake, 34, and Romy, 28 — tried everything they could to help Nick, according to sources. (Rob also had a daughter, Tracy, 61, with his late ex-wife Penny Marshall.)

In a 2016 interview with PEOPLE, Nick described a years-long descent that began in his early teens and eventually left him living on the streets. He said he started cycling in and out of rehabilitation programs around age 15. As his addiction deepened, he drifted further from home, spending long stretches homeless across multiple states.

Those years — nights, sometimes weeks, sleeping outdoors — would later inform the script of Being Charlie, the semi-autobiographical film he co-wrote. “Now, I’ve been home for a really long time, and I’ve sort of gotten acclimated back to being in L.A. and being around my family,” Nick told PEOPLE at the time.

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Against that backdrop, Nick was reportedly being treated for schizophrenia before the deaths of his parents. The Los Angeles Times and KNBC reported, citing sources, that he was receiving medication for the illness.

Schizophrenia is widely misunderstood — but treatable — and is marked by symptoms of psychosis, psychiatrist Dr. Molly “Mary” Conlon told PEOPLE. Conlon oversees the inpatient program at Northwell Health’s Zucker Hillside Hospital and is not connected to Nick Reiner, his treatment or the case.

Nick has also previously described an incident where his drug use led to violent behavior. During a 2018 appearance on the Dopey podcast, Nick recalled trashing his parents’ guest house the year prior after he was “sequestered” in the space during a drug binge.

“I went ten rounds with my guest house,” he told Dopey host Dave Manheim. “I got totally spun out on uppers, I think it was coke and something else. And I was up for days on end, and I started punching out different things in my guest house. I think I started with a TV, and then I went over to a lamp. …Everything in the guest house got wrecked.”

The state charges against Reiner include the aggravating factor of multiple murders, meaning that if he is convicted he could face life in prison without a chance at parole or the death penalty. Prosecutors have not said whether they would seek capital punishment; Gov. Gavin Newsom put a moratorium on executions in California in 2019.

When Nick made a brief court appearance last month on Dec. 17, his former attorney Jackson agreed to postpone the arraignment so he could review more of the evidence. At the time, Jackson told reporters that there were “very complex and serious issues associated with this case” that needed time to be examined.

When the judge asked if Nick was okay waiving his right to a speedy arraignment, Nick replied, “Yes, your honor,” before being led out of the room through a side door by security officers while wearing a suicide smock.

When District Attorney Hochman initially announced the charges, he said the case would be particularly difficult to prosecute because of the intimacy between the victims and the accused. “Prosecuting these cases involving family members are some of the most challenging and heart-wrenching cases that this office faces because of the intimate and often brutal nature of the crimes involved,” he said.

Jake and Romy, who released a statement last month to PEOPLE said the loss of their parents is “something that no one should ever experience.”

“We are grateful for the outpouring of condolences, kindness, and support we have received not only from family and friends but people from all walks of life,” the statement continued. “We now ask for respect and privacy, for speculation to be tempered with compassion and humanity, and for our parents to be remembered for the incredible lives they lived and the love they gave.”

If you or someone you know needs mental health help, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.