A longtime correction officer with the New York state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) says he was wrongfully terminated last month after a series of wildcat strikes across the state.

"I thought I had a good career until recently,” said Adam Root, a former correction officer at Washington Correctional and the former Great Meadow Correctional in Comstock.

The disabled veteran had more than two decades on the job.

"I bought my military back,” Root said. “I only had to do 22 years instead of 25 because they let you buy up to three years military."

With that in mind, the 48-year-old planned his retirement for March 24, 2025. But in the weeks and months leading up to it, a series of unfortunate events began to unfold.

"In 2009, I was involved in an incident with a use of force, restraining an inmate,” he said. “I hurt my back, I had back surgery and now I need back surgery again to get it fused.”

Last August, Root started burning about a thousand hours of earned personal time off.

“I wasn’t doing anything anyone else who was retiring wouldn’t have done,” he said.

Documents show that due to "personal illness," Root was not expected at work from Oct. 25 through Nov. 25, 2024. Similar documents were filed in the weeks that followed, one of which included a period from Feb. 14 through March 12, due “workers’ compensation."

"I was out on comp already, hurt with approved comp and then the strike happens,” Root said. “And my father-in-law died, my son had a kid, so I would've been out of work anyways.”

But on March 3, Root received a letter from DOCCS informing him of his termination due to an “unauthorized absence” beginning on Feb. 22. This was the same day more than 2,000 correction officers received similar letters for not returning to work after the strike.

"They also made a few phone calls,” he said. “Feb. 26, they told me to come back to work. I asked them how, because normally you have to have it approved through the state."

In terms of finances and insurance, Root says the termination has jeopardized his retirement plans.

"Because I’m only 48, I won't get my pension until I’m 55 now and that's some years from now,” he explained. “I've got disability retirement in to see if I can get that but that takes time.”

In a statement provided to Spectrum News 1 Wednesday, a spokesperson for DOCCS says the department does not comment on specific personnel matters but that it “continues to review any potential concerns on a case-by-case basis.”

Asked whether he feels betrayed by the state, Root said “Absolutely.”

Root says that he did not partake in any activities related to the strike but admits that he probably would have had he not been injured.

"I don't have an attorney,” he said. “I've called a few and nobody has returned my phone calls to get wrongful termination or something.”

Root says he’s looking for the state to do what he believes is the right thing to do and for direction.

“I don't even really know what I should be doing,” he said.