Title 23, Title 23 and Safety

(a) All hospitals shall screen each uninsured patient, upon the uninsured patient’s agreement, at the earliest reasonable moment for potential eligibility for both: (1) Public health insurance programs; and (2) Any financial assistance offered by the hospital. (b) All screening a…

A license, unless sooner suspended or revoked, shall expire by limitation on the thirty-first (31st) day of December following its issuance and may be renewed from year to year. In the case of facilities that have not maintained federal certification, the license may be renewed a…

The licensing agency, after notice and opportunity for hearing to the applicant or licensee, is authorized to deny, suspend, or revoke a license, including the licensure of culture change beds approved pursuant to § 23-17-44, in any case in which it finds that there has been a fa…

Whenever the director determines that a health care facility licensed under this chapter is not being operated in conformance with all of the requirements established under this chapter, the director may, in lieu of suspension or revocation of the license of the facility, order t…

Any person who has exhausted all administrative remedies available to him or her within the licensing agency and who is aggrieved by a final decision of the licensing agency is entitled to judicial review in accordance with the provisions of §§ 42-35-15 and 42-35-16.

(a) In view of the barriers and disadvantages which deafness and hearing impairments impose on those individuals so affected, and in view of the testimony on deafness received by a legislative study commission, it is hereby proposed that a permanent Rhode Island commission on the…

The commission shall be primarily a coordinating and advocating body, acting on behalf of the special concerns of deaf and hard-of-hearing persons in Rhode Island. Its activities shall be independent of any existing agency or department within the state. The commission shall be a…

The commission shall administer the sign language interpreter referral service for all certified licensee, licensee, grandparent licensee, and special licensee interpreters, as provided in chapter 71 of title 5, who hold a valid interpreter for the deaf license issued by the stat…

(a) To assist in the performance of its duties the commission shall establish various committees. Except as authorized by the commission, committees shall be composed of no more than seven (7) members who shall serve staggered terms. (b) At least one individual who is deaf, one i…

(a) There is established within the general fund the emergency and public communication access restricted receipt account, which shall be referred to as the EPCA account. The purpose of this account is to fund emergency communication and enhance public communication access for de…

A state employee who is approved by the commission for the deaf and hard of hearing as an interpreter or a communication access realtime translation (CART) provider may be employed by the commission or by other state agencies as long as the interpreter and CART services: (1) Are …

The following terms used in this chapter, unless the context indicates otherwise, have the following meanings: (1) “Agencies” mean town cemeteries, religious or ecclesiastical society cemeteries, cemetery associations, or any person, firm, corporation, or unincorporated associati…

(a) The city or town council of any city or town may prohibit burials in the compact or thickly-populated parts of the city or town, and may make any bylaws and ordinances relating to burials and the use of grounds for burials in the city or town that it may think necessary for p…

In addition to the records and indexes now required to be maintained by every recorder of deeds in all cities and towns, the recorder of deeds in every city and town shall maintain a register of all historical cemeteries located within the city or town. The tax assessor of each c…

(a) A city, town, or public body shall not be held civilly liable for any breach of duty resulting in injury to the person or damage to the property or any person who voluntarily and without compensation, undertakes to maintain or to repair any designated historical cemetery purs…

(a) The city or town council of any municipality may by ordinance prescribe standards regulating any construction or excavation in the city or town, when those standards are reasonably necessary to prevent deterioration of or damage to any cemetery or burial ground, or to any str…

(a) Before an agency or a property owner may authorize or commence alteration or removal of any historic cemetery, the agency or owner must apply to the city or town council where the historic cemetery is located for a permit to alter or remove. The city or town council shall pre…

(a) The city or town council of any municipality may by ordinance prescribe standards, in addition to those required by § 23-18-10, regulating the excavation, removal, and transfer of any graves, grave sites, and cemeteries in the municipality so as to provide an accurate record …

Any person who shall be convicted of vandalism of cemetery property shall, in addition to any fine or penalty imposed by the court, pay treble damages to the agency whose cemetery sustained the damage. In the event the convicted offender is a minor, the family court may, if it de…

The historical preservation and heritage commission shall be notified whenever an ancient burial place contains or is suspected to contain the remains of one or more persons.

(a) “Agencies”, as defined in § 23-18-1, are responsible for the proper maintenance of all records of disposition of human remains, and all burials shall be accompanied with appropriate records or combination of records giving location and name of deceased, date of burial, record…

Any cemetery which accepts the remains of a military veteran for burial shall install, for a maximum charge of seventy-five dollars ($75.00), the plaque issued by the Veterans’ Administration to the deceased veteran, on the veteran’s gravesite.

Every community mausoleum, other than structures containing crypts erected or controlled by churches and religious societies, and every columbarium, or other similar structure intended to hold or contain the bodies or remains of the dead, the spaces, crypts, or niches of which ar…

(a) If a cemetery has rules or regulations in effect regarding the disposition of cremated human remains on or in cemetery property, those rules and regulations, if not contrary to law, shall be binding on all interested parties. (b) The scattering of cremated human remains withi…

Before commencing the building, construction, or erection of any community mausoleum or columbarium, the agency constructing the structure shall make and file plans and specifications of the structure with the city or town clerk of the city or town where the structure is to be er…

No structure shall be used for the purpose of depositing therein human remains until the structure is finally completed, nor until provision for maintenance of the structure has been provided in accordance with the requirements as provided by the city or town wherein the structur…

No crypt, room, or space in the structure shall be sold or offered for sale before the structure is entirely completed, unless and until the agency selling the crypt or niches, enters into an agreement whereby it agrees to refund to each and every purchaser all sums of money paid…

The proceeds from the sales of crypts, niches, or any space in the structure, shall be used for the repayment of loans for the purpose of construction thereof with reasonable interest on the loans and for the construction, maintenance, and perpetual care of the structure, and may…

Whenever a mausoleum, vault, crypt, or similar structure previously or hereafter erected and containing one or more deceased human bodies, shall, in the opinion of the city or town where the structure is located, become a menace to public health, and the owner or owners of the st…

The sale of cemetery lots or plots, or the sale of crypts or niches in a community mausoleum, or niches in a columbarium, crematory, or any other similar structure, for speculative purposes, or upon the promise, representation, or inducement to the purchaser that the structure ma…

(a) All funds paid to or held by an agency for the purpose of funding the perpetual care of cemetery lots, crypts, or niches shall be maintained in a separate perpetual care fund, and shall not be commingled with any other funds of the agency; and (b) Not less than twenty percent…

If at any time after a cemetery lot, crypt, or niche has been sold an agency receives additional funds from any source for perpetual care of the lot, crypt, or niche, all of the funds shall be deposited in the perpetual care fund.

The corpus or principal of perpetual care funds shall be maintained intact, and shall not be expended to pay for perpetual care or any other expenses, but the income and other earnings on the corpus or principal of perpetual care funds may be so expended.

Any person, member of a firm, or any officer or director of a corporation, failing to comply with any of the provisions of this chapter, upon each and every conviction of any of the provisions of this chapter, shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars ($100) nor more than …

This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the “Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation Act”.

The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation shall provide the utmost in protection of public health and the environment while working towards having no impacts on the quality of life in the surrounding neighborhoods. The corporation shall set an example of being a good neighbo…

The corporation shall have all of the powers necessary and convenient to carry out and effectuate the purposes and provisions of this chapter, including but without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the power to: (1) Sue and be sued in its own name; (2) Have an official s…

The corporation shall have the same rights and liabilities as public utilities when installing gas pipelines along or under interstate highways in the state including those rights and liabilities outlined in chapters 8 and 12 of title 24 and § 39-1-2.

(a) The Rhode Island resource recovery corporation shall operate only those public solid waste disposal facilities that shall comply with § 23-18.9-9.1. Sites shall be selected after demonstration of maximizing the use of source reduction, reuse, recycling, flow control technique…

Subject to the limitations set forth in § 23-19-10.2(b)(2), the corporation shall have the right to acquire any land, or any interest in the land, by the exercise of the power of eminent domain, whenever it shall be determined by the corporation that the acquisition of the land, …

Planning responsibilities of the corporation shall include, but not be limited to: (1) The preparation of a statewide resource recovery system development plan which will indicate the location, type, and size of solid waste management facilities, including without limitation, tra…

Notwithstanding the provisions of § 23-19-11, in view of current solid waste disposal needs in the state, the corporation shall implement a solid waste processing system as soon as possible conforming to the following criteria: (1) The system shall consist of a waste processing f…

(a) Under the initial resource recovery system set forth in § 23-19-11.1, it will be necessary to continue to use the central landfill in Johnston for a significant portion of the state’s solid waste. In order to minimize the impact on the community of the use of the central land…

(a) The corporation shall be committed to completion of appropriate studies of the ground and surface water under and adjacent to the central landfill to determine whether and to what extent contamination from the central landfill may affect water quality or public health, and to…

In view of the criticality of the solid waste disposal problem in the state, the procurement of the statutorily mandated Central Falls resource recovery facilities included in the initial resource recovery system shall not be subject to the provisions of chapter 2 of title 37.

Nothing else contained in this chapter shall be construed to affect the powers granted to the department of health and the department of environmental management pursuant to chapters 1 and 18.9 of this title as amended. Further, any solid waste facilities under the jurisdiction o…