The Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS) is a measure designed to thoroughly assess the symptoms of depression, including mood disturbance, vegetative symptoms, cognitive changes, endogenous symptoms, anxiety symptoms, melancholia, and atypicality. While the reliability and validity of the IDS depression scores have been established with outpatient adults being treated in community psychiatric clinics with diagnoses of major depression or bipolar depression, it has not been used in special or dually diagnosed populations such as substance users or with inmates. This study established internal consistency, concurrent validity, and construct validity for both the clinician and self-report versions of the IDS scores of cocaine misusing inmates. Limitations of the study include the small sample (47 inmates of the Dallas, TX, County Jail) and lack of a clinical or research diagnosis of depression that would have provided additional construct validity. Despite these factors, the study effectively established the usefulness and applicability of the IDS in an inmate population. Tables, references