Inside the rat-infested, urine-soaked mental health jail housing Nick Reiner
Nick Reiner is now locked away in Los Angeles’s biggest psychiatric jail, a place infamous for its infestations and filthy, urine‑stained cells—nothing like the plush Brentwood house he once shared with his legendary Hollywood parents.
At 32, Reiner stands accused of killing his father, director Rob Reiner, and his mother, Michele Singer Reiner. He appeared in court this Wednesday wearing the standard blue anti‑suicide vest that the Twin Towers Correctional Facility issues to all inmates.
An illustration from Reuters shows Reiner in that protective vest during his first courtroom appearance.
The downtown jail, operated under state supervision, houses more men with severe mental illness than any other location in the nation, according to inspection reports and court filings.
It is the go‑to facility for Los Angeles County when inmates suffer the most serious psychiatric disorders and are deemed too unstable for dorm‑style housing—even when medicated.
Critics have repeatedly condemned the jail’s internal conditions.
People with serious mental health issues are often placed in one‑ or two‑person high‑observation cells that are watched continuously; they sleep on thin mattresses over concrete slabs.
Many detainees wear the hefty blue suicide vests with nothing on underneath. Others, feeling uncomfortable or affected by their mental illness, remove the vests and spend more than 23 hours a day inside their cells, often naked.
A Bloomberg‑via‑Getty Images snapshot shows an inmate at Twin Towers with mental health conditions being escorted by a guard.
The cells are described as squalid.
County officials have repeatedly documented walls doused with feces, urine leaking underneath doors, graffiti‑stained concrete, and floors piled with torn cardboard trays and juice boxes.
In some cases, sheriffs have shut off water to cells to mitigate toilets that have been intentionally flooded—cutting off drinking water, according to inspection findings.
This situation now lies at the center of a sweeping civil enforcement lawsuit filed this summer by California Attorney General Rob Bonta. He accuses Los Angeles County, its Sheriff’s Department, and Correctional Health Services of subjecting inmates to inhumane and unconstitutional treatment.
The Post has contacted the County Sheriff’s Department to ask whether any of Twin Towers’ conditions have been remedied since the lawsuit.
Bonta’s complaint points out that Twin Towers suffers from mold, rust, black worms in showers, and widespread vermin—including rats.
Inmates often lack basic hygiene supplies—soap, toothbrushes, cleaning kits—making it impossible to maintain sanitary living conditions, court records show.
Movement inside the jail is also hazardous.
The complaint and inspection reports say elevators malfunction so frequently that the Sheriff’s Department has deemed in‑person visitation unsafe for those housed at Twin Towers.
The visitor area is only reachable by elevator, and when the elevators fail—something that happens all the time—visits are canceled outright.
Healthcare inside the facility is stretched beyond capacity.
In 2023, roughly 4,000 incarcerated people were on a medical‑care wait list, per the lawsuit.
At one point, only seven psychologists were responsible for about 4,500 patients across the entire county jail system—about one psychologist for every 642 inmates.
Persistent understaffing has forced sheriff’s deputies into extreme overtime: some logged 48 to 64 hours a month in 2024, further straining jail operations.
Reiner did not enter a plea on Wednesday; his only spoken words were a flat “Yes, your honor” when asked if he would waive his right to a speedy arraignment.
Court records show he remains in custody at Twin Towers as the case moves forward.
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