“This is a way for people to see what a 6-by-9 cell is,” Walker-Webb said Thursday. “It’s literally the size of a parking space. Last night, when I stepped into the cell, I had to immediately step out of it. I don’t even know what I’m going to say or do. I was terrified.”

Waday, who has a diagnosis of schizophrenia, was arrested April 22 after police arrived to respond to a mental health episode he was having. He fought with officers and tried to take one of their weapons, police reports state, and he was arrested and charged with assault on police officers.

The 28-year-old was found incompetent to stand trial and has been waiting for months for a transfer to the Austin State Hospital for “restoration services” designed to allow him to stand trial. But a longstanding shortage of state hospital beds has left mentally ill patients languishing in county jails, often for months.

Complicating matters is the COVID-19 pandemic and Waday’s fragile health, which includes brittle diabetes, which led jail officials to confine him to a single cell in the medical wing, jail officials said.

Stevie Walker-Webb said the family would prefer treatment in a private mental health facility, but that would cost as much as $150,000 a year. A GoFundMe.com page for Waday’s treatment had raised almost $7,000 as of Friday.