Level 5 was one of the seven identical prison levels in one of the Narkina 5 prison complex's cylinders. It was comprised of a central command area which included elevators and service staircases connecting the level with the rest of the facility as well as monitoring and control stations for every work room, and two surrounding rings prisoners were confined in: an inner work ring and an outer cell ring. Work and cell rings were connected with each other via transparent skybridges, which were the only location where prisoners could contact others from different shifts. All floors were built with tunqstoid steel which could be electrified by control stations or mobile activators carried by prison guards and used to punish the least productive shift of the day or suppress prisoner uprisings.
In 5 BBY Cassian Andor, going by the alias "Keef Girgo," was sent to this level following his incarceration in the facility. He was assigned to Table Five of Unit five two D, a work room five-two work unit under floor manager Kino Loy. His table mates, Ulaf, Ruescott Melshi, Jemboc, Xaul, and Ham were the least productive table during the past shifts, but were able to excel in productivity by the end of Andor's first month of imprisonment. However, increased pressure for productivity by prison staff following the Public Order Resentencing Directive and rumors of the termination of an entire shift of prisoners in Level 4 proved to be too much for Ulaf, and combined with his old age caused him to suffer a massive stroke. Doctor Rhasiv was called in to assist him but was unable to save him, and instead euthanized him to end his suffering. Already fed up with prisoner treatment, Doctor Rhasiv confessed to Loy and Andor the prison's secret inmate recycling process, through which prisoners who had completed their sentence were sent to another facility to continue working there indefinitely instead of being released.
Following the reveal news spread up to Unit five-two-D and the unit's inmates decided to make an escape attempt the following day. Gathering supplies from their assembly inventories and damaging a water pipe powering their work room's floor, they managed to take out the sentry guards escorting a new prisoner in the ring and deactivate the Tunqstoid. Having suffered heavy casualties but with all opposition eliminated, the five-two-D prisoners stormed their work room's control room and collected weapons and zap rods from the armory. They then proceeded to the rest of the rooms in their level, liberating it in its entirety, while Loy and Andor reached the prison command center and prevented the prison commander from executing their fellow inmates by emergency floor activation. With no imperials left to stop them, Level 5 inmates climbed to the top of the cylinder where they were joined by others from all around the cylinder and jumped to the water surrounding the facility from the prison barge landing bays.