When analysing the features of the Spanish criminal justice system from the perspective of the late-democratisation of the Spanish polity, the system's evolution is characterised by an almost uninterrupted penal expansionism and a relatively prominent level of severity. This paper examines those features from the viewpoints of the legal reforms, institutional practices and collective perceptions and expectations experienced since the end of the dictatorial period. In addition, the article explores some reasons which may explain the relatively high punitiveness of the Spanish criminal justice system, before adding a coda on the changes of the penal system fostered by the Great Recession.