Joseph Penn, MDDirector of Mental Health Services
Dr. Penn earned his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas. He completed his residency and served as chief resident in psychiatry, followed by a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He later completed an additional fellowship in forensic psychiatry at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
He is board certified in general psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Penn has served as a board examiner for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and has worked on its general psychiatry recertification committee. He currently serves on the forensic psychiatry committee.
Dr. Penn is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UTMB in Galveston, Texas. He previously held a similar position at Brown University and the Warren Alpert Medical School. He is the lead author of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) Practice Parameter for the assessment and treatment of youth in juvenile detention and correctional facilities, along with several other publications.
Dr. Penn has conducted many independent psychiatric evaluations for children, adolescents, and adults in civil and criminal cases. He has been qualified as an expert witness and has testified in both state and federal courts. He has also worked as a consultant on mental health care systems in both correctional and non-correctional settings.
In addition, Dr. Penn has given presentations on topics related to law and psychiatry, including the use of seclusion and restraint, prescription of psychiatric medications, access to mental health care in correctional facilities, suicide prevention, and assessing the risk of future violence. He represents AACAP on the Board of Directors of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) and recently served as its Chairman.