On February 2, 2015, five bullets were unloaded into a Gowrie home while people were inside, including two children. One woman was grazed but not seriously hurt.

Canberra man Harley Dean Stott was one of several people arrested over the shooting but it was the man's "serious misplaced loyalty" that had got him involved, his lawyers told the court.

Stott's friend Erin Maree Miller was at the time in a dispute with another woman over a drug debt. The woman apparently had Miller's stolen jewellery and the shooting was an attempt to get it back.

Stott later helped torch the car involved in the drive-by.

The 24-year-old appeared in the ACT Supreme Court on Friday for sentencing after pleading guilty to helping commit an act endangering life and arson. He also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to trafficking drugs into the Alexander Maconochie Centre while he was on remand.

Intercepted calls captured Stott and Miller arranging to bring methylamphetamine and heroin into the prison, the latter to be sold for $200 a point, the court heard.

The shooting carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and the arson 15 years. The trafficking charge attracts 10 years jail maximum punishment.

Prosecutor Anthony Williamson said there had been three drive-by shootings in Canberra in the last month. He argued the prevalence of such crimes must be a source of anxiety to the people of the territory and the court needed to send a clear message to criminals "that drive-by shootings will not be tolerated".

He also said the arson was made more serious because the car had been torched in the bush out at Uriarra in the height of summer and bushfire season.

Stott's defence lawyer Jess Vogel asked the judge to consider releasing Stott on bail to attend full-time rehabilitation and undergo assessment for an intensive corrections order, or alternatively defer the man's sentence to complete the rehabilitation program.

Ms Vogel said Stott had become involved in the shooting - and someone else's dispute - due to some "seriously misplaced loyalty". He had been promised money and drugs for the arson, and at the time he was in the grip of addiction and "would have done anything for drugs."

She said Stott had been released from prison and started to turn his life around when he was arrested in 2016 for the February 2015 shooting and arson.

He had become involved in the trafficking conspiracy to access drugs for his own personal use, she said.

But Ms Vogel told the court Stott took responsibility for his decisions to get involved and had asked her "not to make excuses for his behaviour".

For two years he had not committed any offences, she said. Though the lawyer conceded much of that time was spent behind bars, she said Stott had used the time effectively to reflect on his crimes and complete drug rehabilitation programs.

Stott had been drug tested twice in prison and both times came up negative. Ms Vogel said due to a resourcing issue Stott had apparently not been tested since 2016 and his entry into the jail's Therapeutic Community program. Stott maintained any test now would be clean.

Ms Vogel said her client had expressed remorse and wanted to turn his life around, having turned 24 and realised his options were "seriously limited". He wanted to get out of prison and make his mother proud.

But Mr Williamson said it would be inappropriate to release Stott into the community having served only 16 months in jail. That was not sufficient to denunciate the crime and deter others from offending, he said. He added that an intensive corrections order "does not have the same bite" as full-time custody.

Justice Hilary Penfold decided she would not release Stott for an intensive corrections order assessment.

She will sentence the man on August 24.