Dr. Penn has performed numerous civil, criminal, and other independent psychiatric evaluations of children, adolescents, adults, and has been qualified and testified as an expert witness in state and federal courts. He has served as a consultant regarding correctional and non-correctional mental health care delivery and standards of care. He has presented on law and psychiatry issues, including seclusion and restraint, use of psychotropic medications, access to mental health care in correctional settings, suicide prevention, and prediction of future violence. He is the AACAP's representative to the Board of Directors of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC), and recently served as Chairman of the Board.
Dr. Penn received his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas, he completed a residency and chief residency in psychiatry, and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry, in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. He completed an additional fellowship in forensic psychiatry at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Board certified in general, child and adolescent, and forensic psychiatry, he has served as a board examiner for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, on the general psychiatry recertification committee, and is currently on the forensic psychiatry committee.
Dr. Penn is a Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UTMB, Galveston, Texas. He was previously Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, at Brown University and the Warren Alpert Medical School. He was the principle 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 among other writings.