An inmate at Goose Creek Correctional Center complained that the facility does not sell the correct size shoe to accommodate his extra wide feet. He said that the facility first denied his request to purchase shoes from an outside vendor because he did not show a medical need. However, once the medical need was verified, he said, the staff still denied the shoe purchase for security reasons. Investigation revealed that the inmate did not have a medical necessity for specialty shoes as he asserted. Wide feet are not considered a medical condition requiring a prosthetic device. Several years prior, medical staff had approved him to either order shoes from commissary or have family purchase shoes and send them into the facility, but only with security approval. Security staff denied the inmate’s efforts to purchase shoes from an unapproved vendor on several occasions. The Ombudsman explained to him that he would need to order shoes from an approved vendor. After Ombudsman contact, the facility standards officer (FSO) contacted other vendors to see if they offered the shoe size needed by the complainant and found one that offered the larger, wider sizes. The FSO informed the complainant that he could order the shoes through that vendor but, as of this writing, the complainant had not done so. (A2016-1089)