Cerfberr, Maximilien-Charles Alphonse

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CERFBERR, MAXIMILIEN-CHARLES ALPHONSE

CERFBERR, MAXIMILIEN-CHARLES ALPHONSE (1817–1883), French publicist. Cerfberr devoted much of his time to the study of penitentiary conditions. His school for young convicts in Poissy was the first of its kind. Cerfberr, who at different periods was a sailor and a soldier in Algeria and the Levant, served for a short time as the republic's representative (commissaire) in the department of Saône-et-Loire after the 1848 revolution. His writings include La vérité sur les prisons (1844) and Les juifs, leur histoire, leurs moeurs.