I find this question surprising. 
Calls should be disconnected once they’ve been transferred to an external number - regardless if automatic call recording is enabled or not.

Are you saying you have recordings in your call log, after 1 external caller has been transferred to another external destination?

Example scenario:
A - external caller
B - user on RC
C - external destination

A calls B  (call recorded)
B transfers A to C (this part shouldn’t be recorded. are you saying it is?)

Basically yes. Customer calls into our RC line, chooses extension 201 (or any extension as they all forward to 201). ALL calls for extension 201 get forwarded to an external number. The entire call to the external number has been recorded in RC. 

So not only are we being charged extra to forward calls (which is ridiculous to me), we are then using up minutes because it’s not disconnecting. 

Ideally I just want all calls to our main/toll-free number to forward to a local number with a different provider. But that seems impossible...

I was able to reproduce this on my end and did some digging. I couldn’t find an RC article talking about the billing side of call forwarding, but I did find a verizon article(They are RC partners btw):
“..you'll be billed for all forwarded calls according to your plan. You'll be billed just like you would if you answered the call...”
I am thinking this could be an industry standard - maybe somebody from RC can confirm. 

I would rephrase your question like this:
“How are incoming calls to a Toll-Free number which are then forwarded to an external number billed?”
If we go back to our example:
A calls B(toll-free)
B forwards A to C
Which party is getting charged for the call? It seems like it’s B.