[1] The album sold 1,400 copies in the United States in the first week of its release and debuted at No.

[2] This is the last album with original singer Alissa White-Gluz before she joined Arch Enemy in 2014.

About.com's Dan Marsicano described the album as a "focused blend of strait-laced metalcore and technical craftsmanship that borders on the progressive front",[3] and Sputnikmusic wrote that the album is "oozing with inspiration from a plethora of genres, such as melodeath, thrash and progressive metal.

"[6] In a review for AllMusic, critic reviewer Eduardo Rivadavia explained: "Although its explosively schizophrenic amalgam of disparate sounds, moods, and intensities might initially suggest otherwise, the Agonist's third album, Prisoners, is in fact an apt summation of that which came before it; a mature, calculated freakout representing the latest sprint in the Canadian band's aggressive evolutionary curve, well beyond the modest metalcore roots.

[4] At About.com, Dan Marsicano wrote: "Prisoners is a much tamer album than Lullabies for the Dormant Mind, with less additional instrumentation, but is just a smidgen better due to the combined effort of each member.