Stone was appointed in October 2012, six months after an Australian Senate Committee report into the country's Immigration Detention Network concurred with the government's stated view that cases of indefinite detention should be subject to review.

The committee's final report, released in April 2012, said that it "resolutely rejects the indefinite detention of people without any right of appeal. Such detention, effectively condemning refugees who have not been charged with any crime to detention for the term of their natural life, runs counter to the basic principles of justice underpinning Australian society."

Because she has already been found to be legitimate refugee, Ranjini can't be deported. And her high risk status prevents her from being released.

"It's still the government's strong view that non-Australian citizens who have been given an adverse security assessment should not be permanently settled in Australia. We ensure appropriate arrangements are in place for the care and support of people detained due to an adverse security assessment," a DIAC spokesman told CNN.

ASIO has not revealed the criteria it uses to decide if someone is a security risk.

The organization's Director-General David Irvine told the Senate Committee that "once the criteria for making assessments are known, then you will find very quickly that all the applicants will have methods of evading or avoiding demonstrating those characteristics."

He said the decision to issue an adverse assessment "was not taken lightly." "Nor are we contemptuous of or blasé about the human rights of the individual's involved.

"We take very seriously our responsibility to behave ethically and professionally and, obviously, with the utmost probity," he added.

Still, the process undertaken by Stone has offered a glimmer of hope to those in indefinite detention that their status could change.

Letters dated December 4, 2012 were sent to all 56 detainees who are considered a national risk. So far, 54 have requested their cases be reviewed, according to Stone's office.

During the review process, detainees will be allowed to see an ASIO summary explaining why they are considered a risk to Australia. However, according to the terms of reference, information will only be included "to the extent able without prejudicing the interests of security."

Stone's office has confirmed to CNN that Ranjini's case has been given priority, along with a number of others.

Life in detention

Ranjini and her sons are being held in a "lower security" section of Villawood Detention Center in Sydney with other families who are waiting for their claims to be processed.

The boys are not free to leave. Ganesh says that they were given refugee status but had not been granted permanent visas when their mother failed the security test. He says he's trying to secure them a visa but until then they must stay in detention.

Very soon they'll be joined by Baby Paari. Because his father has permanent residency, Paari qualifies as an Australian citizen and will be allowed to leave the center, just not with his mother.

"The situation is deplorable," said Ranjini's lawyer, David Manne, executive director of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Center. He called on the government "as a matter of basic decency, humanity and common sense" to use its powers of discretion to release Ranjini and her children "so they can reunite and live in freedom with their husband and father as a family."

More than a dozen children now live in Villawood Detention Center, according to ChilOut, an advocacy group that campaigns against the detention of minors.

A DIAC spokesman declined to confirm how many, but said the children have access to play areas and are taken on regular excursions outside the center, swimming and to the park.

Every day, the older children are escorted to and from school by officials from Serco, the company contracted to run Australian detention centers. Their parents are also allowed to accompany them, the DIAC spokesman said.

ChilOut's campaign director Leila Druery says that despite efforts to support the children they are clearly traumatized by their surroundings. "They feel that they're bad people and that they're being punished which means they have very low self esteem," she said.

"They have nightmares, suffer from anxiety and are quite stressed and I don't think you should find a five year old having anxiety attacks, wetting the bed and waking up in the middle of the night distressed."

In its final report, the Senate Committee said it "received no evidence to contradict the view that detention was an unhealthy and damaging environment for children."

And this is where Ganesh knows their baby will be unless his wife is freed.

The campaign