Galen was one of the original organizers of ReThink Justice. Galen, a returning citizen, has been a staunch criminal justice advocate and in 2015 won a Soros Justice Fellowship to expand his work around injustices in the current sex offender system.

Galen was incarcerated in Arlington, VA over two years ago on a technical parole violation. Galen is now facing lifetime incarceration as a so-called “sexually violent predator (SVP),” even though he has never been accused of an act of violence and his only conviction dates back over 15 years ago. The Attorney General’s office of the state of Virginia is now trying him to get him civilly committed to a state mental hospital prison.

The following Washington Post article tells the whole story well:

In Arlington, a judge must decide if a nonviolent sex offender should stay incarcerated after serving his sentence

More recently, Virginia Delegate Patrick Hope, (D-Arlington) wrote an OpEd piece that was published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Patrick Hope column: Virginia’s sexually violent predator laws have gone too far