William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility, officially opened in October 1982 as the West Jefferson Correctional Facility with a capacity of 700 minimum and medium custody inmates housed in dormitories, and 16 single cells. Subsequently, Donaldson was expanded to the current capacity, and has a 300-inmate segregation unit, which is the largest unit in the State of Alabama. Classified as a maximum-security institution, Donaldson specializes in controlling repeat and/or multiple violent offenders with lengthy sentences that are behaviorally difficult to manage, and several hundred inmates sentenced to life without parole. In addition, Donaldson has a death row with a capacity for 24 inmates that need to be incarcerated in the Birmingham judicial area.