Rhode Island General Laws Title 11. Criminal Offenses § 11-35-26. Automatic telephone dialing systems failing to disconnect

(a) Any person who operates an automatic telephone dialing system in this state which fails within five (5) seconds after the called party hangs up to automatically create a disconnect signal or an on-hook condition which allows the called party's line to be released shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars ($200) for each occurrence.

(b) As used in this section, “automatic telephone dialing system” means any automatic terminal equipment which is capable of storing numbers to be called or producing numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator, and with the ability to call those numbers, and which is capable of delivering a prerecorded message to the number called with or without manual assistance.